today marked the start of my 59th year. 

 I spent last night and the night before taking photos of my Martin’s at sunset. Friday night at Virginia Highlands community college last night at my home colony on peaceful Valley Road.  

Virginia Highlands Community College Colony Friday July 6,2018

It is hard to believe that we’re at the end of the season and that within a couple of weeks the Martin’s will be gone for the year and we will be waiting for next year’s arrival  

 This year I feel I have not spent as much time watching and studying my birds as much as I would have liked but it was a wonderful year as my son had his wedding at my home last weekend on June 30 and we had over 50 people here enjoying the night and enjoying the company of the Martin’s and the Wolfe Hills jazz band.

 Now that the wedding is in the rearview mirror I have spent more time with my birds this week and have enjoyed photographing and planning for next season. Before next years planning takes over, I still want to enjoy the last couple of weeks of this season.  

 Tonight I’ll watch my birds come in hopefully in big numbers but more importantly I will be looking to see if I am going to have a pre-migratory roost in some form or fashion as I’ve had in the past several years.  

 This pre-migratory roost is an area in the adjacent property that is overgrown with a lot of pear trees as well as the forest that I have planted from red maple trees where the past several years dating back to at least 2009 Martin’s, in numbers from thousands to just hundreds,  have congregated before venturing further south on their migration  journey. 

 Two nights ago I did notice several birds going into the trees but that is not enough to confirm an active roost. in the years that the roost was in large numbers it’s seem to occur anywhere from 15 July to the first or second of August for the fact a few birds went in the other night is An encouraging  sign that a roost may be bigger this year than it has in the past  couple of years  the best year was 2009. 

Peaceful valley road colony Saturday evening July 7,2018