Purple Martins never even said "Goodbye".

There GONE!...it happens this way every year...I so enjoy watching them arrive each year just after Easter time...They make their nest in the bird houses I provide and they soar and catch bugs all summer long..Especially mosquitoes which kind of makes them my little winged hero's.....They catch a tremendous amount of bugs eating some, kind of like my blueberry picking experinces and then also feeding thier kids in the nest all the bugs they can eat....The little ones grow fast and soon you see the parents aunt's and uncle's the whole clan hovering around the nest, "marking time we marines call it", going no where, but flapping thier wings in still flight...they are churping away and calling to the "teen agers" in the nest to come out and learn to fly like the grown ups....That last about 3 or 4 days and soon they are all in flight and we have lots of martins soaring and eating bugs...Then, as each year, as happened on August 10th this year, Jill's birthday, they dissapeared, they are gone. The houses stand there empty again. and the Martins are on their way to South America...A long journey, I hope they all make it there and find thier way's back next spring, when we will do it all again....