There was a single Purple Martin perched on a bar of the newly installed martin complex at Croton Point Park this morning (7:05-7:15 a.m.). One of the houses is occupied by tree swallows but when buzzed by a swallow the martin did not seem concerned; indeed it took a pass at the swallow occupied house and re-perched to continue pruning. To my knowledge there are no breeding martin colonies in Westchester County. The bird appears to be juvenile not adult female. I am not sure how it can find and alert adults to this new construction, not to mention the river views, plenty of food, and winter cleaning service. But of course young folks are trumped by older folks all the time even when the adults would be well served to listen to the youth.
Thanks to Charlie Roberto, Anne Swaim and John Phillips for their efforts in establishing a Westchester martin colony. L. Trachtenberg Ossining Sent from my iPhone -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
