Good news! At the July 16 banding session there was a compartment with underdeveloped nestlings in it. These "little guys" looked sickly and their fate was uncertain. Today I was curious to see if they had survived and they did. They looked perfectly healthy! Their survival is almost certain now so long as the parent birds are not killed by a hawk, which has happened with other nests at this colony this year. But continuing with the good news, Peter reports that there have been record few casualties at this his colony this year. Unfortunately, we also found freshly hatched eggs in one compartment this year. These birds need a month to grow, which will put their fledging date at the end of August, which is when most Purple Martins have already gone off to South America. I always see stragglers at the end of August, so it is possible that these birds will grow and fledge successfully in that time. It will be very tight, but it is doable. It is also possible, however, that the parent birds' migratory instincts will lure them away from parenting duties before the young fledge.