The posts today about the cliff swallows nesting reminded me of an
incident that occured when I was a teenager.

One afternoon in May I was watering
the yard and hosing down the driveway. The water collected at the bottom
of the driveway, creating a large mud puddle. Within a few hours 3 pairs
of barn swallows were collecting mud. (It had been a very dry spring, so
I guess they were having a hard time finding mud, at least in the
neighborhood.)

The next day I remembered that my mother had a bag of goose down in the
basement that
she had bought at a garage sale, with the idea that she would one day make
a pillow. I threw a couple of handfuls of the feathers out on the
lawn, and within
a few hours had barn and violet-green swallows collecting the feathers
to line their nests. What's really interesting is that I saw a pair of
rough-winged swallows (which nested several miles away) perched on the
telephone wires as well. (And they don't even line their nests with
feathers!) That was the only time I ever saw rough-wings in the
neighborhood.

Mike Donahue
Seattle