Purple Martins Are Back

On Friday I heard some folks announcing that they had seen purple martins swooping around the area and that they were busy getting their 'martin houses' raised. While I was out in the yard on Saturday I also heard and saw a martin flying around.

This is fairly early for the martins up in this country as they don't normally arrive until mid-May. However, these birds may just be the advance scouts who search out likely areas for the main flock to settle in. The birds that have arrived here are definitely looking into building nests and what not, but as of yet there is not a lot of them.

While out working in the yard I also noted a couple of tree swallows swooping around and checking out the bird houses. Normally these miniature purple martins arrive a couple weeks earlier than their larger cousins. So they are arriving at approximately their normal time of the year.

Either way you look at it, hopefully we have some summer weather coming with the birds. So far we really have only had a couple of real nice days. Mind you yesterday and Saturday were very nice even though it was a bit windy on Saturday. It would be nice to get a little warmer though...