Thanks to the care and maintenance by the Thruway and nearby neighbors, the Purple Martin colony at the east side of the New Paltz Thruway exit lane is doing very well this year.
With birds coming and going to the many occupied next boxes and gourds, it is hard to get a good count, but I'd estimate that there are at least a dozen pairs in residence, more likely more. The birds can easily be seen from the shoulder of the exit land (after exiting the toll booths) or from the Park & Ride lot on the west side of the lanes. You can get much closer to the birds at the end of Paradies Lane off Rt. 299. The good folks nearest to the martin colony welcome viewers. But there's no need to go off the public road since the martins frequently fly up to the utility lines and shrubs close to the road. The heron colony north of Rt. 299 seems to be thriving as well. Richard Guthrie -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
