"It's going to be very, very, very, very, very, very difficult," to get Washington proclaimed Purple Martin Capital of Iowa, says 89th District Rep. "We've got to give the Legislature more time to get this through," says Jarvis, who will fine-tune his purple martin capital presentation for a run at the 2004 legislative session. He's already backed off from this year's legislative session, as the 2003 representatives scurry with budget issues of all shapes and sizes in hand across the floor of the capital building. The sheriff has to get the state Legislature to approve, by resolution, Washington being named the State Purple Martin Capital. So far, in-state recognition has been the speed bump in Jarvis' way. "We don't recognize them unless they are," says Karen Martin, editor of The Nature Society News, a Griggsville, Ill.-based monthly newspaper full of information about-you guessed it-purple martins. To be officially named a state's purple martin capital, your town must be certified by The Nature Society.Īnd to be certified by The Nature Society, your town must be deemed the state capital by your state's legislature. The Albuquerque Urban Bird Coalition has also unveiled a birding map to encourage bird-related tourism and proclaim the Cooper’s hawk as the new mascot of the city’s forestry program.Griggsville, Ill., was named The Purple Martin Capital of the Nation in 1962 and is home to The Nature Society, a purple martin information hub that also acts as official purple martin recordkeeper. Mary Jane and I live near the bottom red dot. “Making the extra effort to protect and enhance habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife improves our quality of life and extends our commitment to sustainability.” The birding map looks like this: In other news, Mayor Tim Keller has declared Albuquerque a haven for migratory birds as the city unveiled a new map for birders and chose a beloved hawk as a mascot for the forestry program. “Our urban forest and the wildlife it supports make our city a better and more beautiful place to call home,” Keller said in a news release. Where they are common, people erect purple martin houses to attract nesting flocks of them, like these at Maumee Bay State Park in Ohio used for insect control. The males are a solid purple but the females have an off-white breast. National Geographic’s Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America shows the bird in western and southern New Mexico but not in Albuquerque, so the one I saw is what birders call a “casual visitor.” It feeds on wasps, flies, butterflies and just about any flying insect, including dragonflies. But that’s not unusual, for I’ve listed eleven other bird species that I’ve seen in the valley that aren’t in the book, like the common black hawk I’ve seen four times and the curve-billed thrasher that lives in our front yard. It is the largest swallow in North America and is not supposed to live in the South Valley of Albuquerque, so it is not listed in A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque (UNM Press, 2008), my bible for nature studies in this region. The image above is a purple martin at rest.
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