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 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]