[Birdtalk] More Purple Martins

[Kristin Purdy]

Today, I came across another PURPLE MARTIN colony south of the Monte Cristo 
Highway (SR-39) at about milepost 52 in Rich County. I observed long enough 
to locate four nest cavities and saw males delivering green aspen leaves to 
the nest holes. They held the leaves in their beaks like a dog holds a 
frisbee in its muzzle. I finally had to leave when I ran out of enthusiasm 
and blood to feed my attentive mosquito entourage.

The aspen grove was a paradise for cavity nesters. I saw Northern Flickers 
feeding young, two different Red-naped Sapsucker nest cavities with parents 
delivering ants, a Hairy Woodpecker, House Wrens, Mountain Bluebirds, Tree 
Swallows and Violet-green Swallows. Non-cavity nesters included a pair of 
Yellow Warblers, a trio of Clark's Nutcrackers flying overhead, a Dusky 
Flycatcher, a Western Wood-pewee, White-crowned Sparrows that sounded their 
"chink" alarm call at me incessantly, and even a Bullock's Oriole. I don't 
remember seeing orioles in the Monte Cristo Range before; this was a 
first-year male and the elevation was just shy of 8,000 feet.

The surrounding sagebrush harbored Green-tailed Towhees, Brewer's and Vesper 
Sparrows, and sometime during the day I heard several Orange-crowned and 
MacGillivray's Warblers. A dark morph Swainson's Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk and 
Turkey Vultures kept an eye on things from above.

Kris