Hi Tweets,

Just a note to say that the Purple Martins at English Boom on Camano Island have begun egg laying. The first egg was laid June 10, or a few days earlier. This timing is pretty much right in line with all previous years I've checked nests to determine clutch initiation, at various locations around the northern Sound. I would expect most martins in the Puget Sound region to be pretty much on the same schedule, with some outliers. I'm posting this information because every so often I read reports of martin fledglings that I am reasonably certain cannot be hatch year birds. It will be more or less six weeks before the earliest laid clutches produce fledgling martins. Late arriving second year martins are easily confused with fledglings.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington