Subject: Re: re fluttering swallows
Date: Jun 05 09:32:17 1996
From: kraig at wln.com - kraig at wln.com



Dennis spoke of swallows and mud:

>I assume some of us might not have thought about the consequences of
>making a mud nest. You can only breed somewhere there are mud
>puddles, and this surely must affect where Barn and Cliff swallows
>nest. I've wondered if the decrease of Barn Swallows in the city
>could be a consequence of the reduction of mud puddles. We need a
>Swallow Research Section to furnish mud puddles all over our cities!

We were over at the Vernita Bridge rest stop a week or so ago,
checking out the Long-eared Owls with their fledged young. A large
colony of Cliff Swallows nests under the bridge; a fluttering swarm
covered a large mud puddle near the parking lot. The rest area
maintenance man (a DOT employee) saw me watching the swallows, came
over and told me that he runs the sprinklers on a dust patch there to
provide the mud for the swallows!

He also requested that birders coming to see the owls be very
discreet; he's seen non-birders harassing the owls. He found one of
the nestlings dead under the nest, along with damage to the tree that
suggested that someone had climbed up and grabbed it.


Eric Kraig
Olympia
kraig at wln.com