After yesterday’s expedition, we were inspired to add the last local swallow to this year’s list. So we headed off to the Chicago Botanic Garden where we saw PURPLE MARTINS frolicking in their aptly named purple-martin houses. We only made the trip because we knew there was a p.m. house development there. We also saw some frog-mouthed p.m. babies mooching for food, and oddly, a house sparrow who had taken up residence in one of the apartments. Damned invasives.

A miserably hot day for both of us as well as for a panting robin we saw walking in the shade. Once we got back to my neighborhood, we stopped at a park where we noticed — for the first time — a purple martin house with a you-know-what sitting on the porch. So we could have saved ourselves the long trip north and just made a surgical strike from my air-conditioned lair. Damned p.m. houses at the damned Chicago Botanic Garden.