Post by Gord on Jun 26, 2006 11:58:43 GMT -8
Went out in the boat from Island 22 down to Nicomen Slough for work related stuff that included moving the purple martin boxes a bit higher. The water rose very close to them this year!
After driving past the loudly singing lazuli bunting at the main gate, we put the boat in. Down where the Sumas River empties into the Fraser in the MacGillvray Slough Wildlife Area I heard a least flycatcher singing when we stopped to watch a doe with two very young fawns. What a birdy area!
Down at Nicomen Slough we started to move the boxes higher. We were on the fourth one when I heard an unfamiliar "chrlurppp chrlurrrp!" overhead. I almost fell out of the boat. A female purple martin was dive bombing us!!! I was expecting it to be a few years before we saw any action here, and I never thought there'd also be one at Eagle Point on the same day! Perhaps next season they will nest now that they know these boxes are here. I would guess that this and the Eagle Point bird are last year's young from colonies on the coast (Maplewood, Blackie Spit etc.) This one appeared to have a red band on its left leg. What I think is unreal is that Iona Island had boxes up for years with no action (until recently), yet out here two locations had birds its first year!!
There must be a need or it's just fluke.
Will post pictures later. I should write the Martin Recovery Team with the exciting news now.
After driving past the loudly singing lazuli bunting at the main gate, we put the boat in. Down where the Sumas River empties into the Fraser in the MacGillvray Slough Wildlife Area I heard a least flycatcher singing when we stopped to watch a doe with two very young fawns. What a birdy area!
Down at Nicomen Slough we started to move the boxes higher. We were on the fourth one when I heard an unfamiliar "chrlurppp chrlurrrp!" overhead. I almost fell out of the boat. A female purple martin was dive bombing us!!! I was expecting it to be a few years before we saw any action here, and I never thought there'd also be one at Eagle Point on the same day! Perhaps next season they will nest now that they know these boxes are here. I would guess that this and the Eagle Point bird are last year's young from colonies on the coast (Maplewood, Blackie Spit etc.) This one appeared to have a red band on its left leg. What I think is unreal is that Iona Island had boxes up for years with no action (until recently), yet out here two locations had birds its first year!!
There must be a need or it's just fluke.Will post pictures later. I should write the Martin Recovery Team with the exciting news now.
