Teresa,

Thanks for the info on all the nesting locations - it's great to watch
nesting activities. I did have one comment on your observation of barn
swallow nesting --

On Mon, 08 May 95 12:47:00 PDT Teresa Michelsen wrote:

>Juanita Bay Park has a wide variety of nesting species, easily
observable from safe (from the bird's perspective) locations....
On the main boardwalk in the pond behind the beaver dam are more
nesting pied-billed grebes, more blackbird and marsh wren nests,
holes in the tall snag in the center of the marsh had tree swallows
going in and out, ***and barn swallows appeared to be nesting in the
reeds.*** There were also some suspicious pairs of waterfowl loitering
about, including a pair of blue-winged teal, and several pairs of
mallards, gadwall, and Canada geese. (Stars *** are my emphasis - ja)

>Teresa Michelsen
temi461 at ecy.wa.gov
Inglewood

Barn swallows nest under a covered area, building a nest from mud (and a
little straw). The protection of building under cover keeps the open mud
structure from dissolving in the weather. Now that humans have figured how
to erect buildings, bridges, etc., the Swallow has taken advantage of our
labors - began nesting in barns, etc hence the epitath of "barn
swallow". Besides nesting on barn rafters, I've seen these critters nesting
in 'colonies' on bridge supports, and singly in the holes in basaltic lava
over in E Washington.

The Cliff Swallow also uses barns (a lot of non-birders have told me
about the hundreds of 'barn swallows' nesting under the eaves of their
barns), but builds a suspended, jug-shaped nest of mud. With a bit of
rain (or humidity?) the mud can weaken, and dozens of nests can come a-
tumbling down - baby birds and all. The barn swallow, having its nest
flat on a rafter, bridge beam, light fixture, etc, doesn't usually have to
worry about gravity pulling its nest down in that situation.

I would be extremely surprised to find either one of these species actually
nesting in the reeds (assume _Juncus_, not _Phragmites_) of a marsh.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov