The birds have been telling me it is late summer. Seeing lots of swallow families, fully fledged and flying about, getting those reserves up for fall migration. Purple Martins (species of swallow), for instance, are always a treat in a
binocular. Want a charge of energy? Just watch Purple Martins for a few minutes. We have a nice house at a suburban lake, maintianed by one of our area's best
birders, so the colony is always healthy and abundant. I make it a point to sit and watch them with my compact binoculars while riding the bike trail in late July and August. Martins seem to be in a hurry to head south in the fall and are gone long before the days turn cool and insects disappear. Once gone, it's a long wait to see another
Purple Martin the following spring.