A bit of information on Purple Martins from "The Birds of North America," 
the Cornell lab web site.

"this species in eastern North America now breeds almost entirely in 
backyard birdhouses. Its conversion to human-made martin houses from 
ancestral nest sites—abandoned woodpecker holes in dead snags—was 
almost complete before 1900; only a few records of natural nestings east of 
the Rocky Mountains have been reported during the twentieth century."  They 
did apparently nest until the 1930s in rock crevices on islands in 
Minnesota.

Some American Indians put out gourds for Purple Martins before they started 
being used by European transplants in the 1700s.  The Europeans copied this 
habit.

In Western North America, Purple Martins are not as common as they are 
here, but they are usually found nesting in natural cavities.  One of first 
natural colonies I ever saw was in holes in a group of saguaro cacti on the 
road to the Nature Conservancy's Aravaipa Canyon preserve in Arizona.


On another note - I saw fledglings of several species of warblers on our 
local OBBA blocks this past weekend, including Blue-winged, Yellow, 
Yellow-throated, Cerulean (!), and American Redstart.  Zillions of Common 
Yellowthroats singing and eating and some even CF (carrying food), but no 
babies seen.  The best find was the fuzzy baby Cerulean - previously, the 
only fledgling that I had seen being fed by a pair of Cerulean parents was 
a Cowbird.

Get out in the heat and atlas!


Janet Duerr
Athens, OH

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