Subject: RE: Swallow Populations
Date: Jul 24 00:43:24 1998
From: Jim McCoy - jfmccoy at earthlink.net


I moved to Redmond from Massachusetts this year, and I've been struck by how frequently swallows fill the air, and how there seems to be a swallow in sight at any given time. My impression, and that's all it is, would be that swallows are generally more numerous here than in the east.

The point here is that individual experience is an extremely unreliable basis for generalizing about population trends. Our differing experiences probably have more to do with the vagaries of a handful of specific colonies, and the extent to which our movements and theirs happen to coincide.

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From: Maureen Ellis[SMTP:me2 at u.washington.edu]
Reply To: me2 at u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 1998 4:48 PM
To: Diann MacRae
Cc: cfeiss at halcyon.com; Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Swallow Populations

Nesting Barn swallow populations at the Des Moines Marina have dropped
about 50% over the last few years. And the Violet-green swallows seem a
fraction of what used to "fill" the sky over our condo complexes.
Me too *:>(
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-
********************************************
On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, Diann MacRae wrote:

> Hi Carol and Tweets,
>
> I've lived here in greater Bothell (Snohomish County), on probably its
> highest hill, for over 15 years. When we moved here, the skies were full
> of barn, violet-green, and tree swallows plus swifts. They nested all over
> the neighborhood. Now, we see a few violet-greens and that's it, but none
> nest here or at the neighbors that I know of. The corvid population,
> including crows and Steller's jays, has been the same all along. So has
> the neighborhood cat population :-( My feeling has been since I started
> noticing the decline about eight years ago, that it is a problem on the
> wintering grounds involving some of the same situations that have caused
> severe declines in some songbird species. Habitat destruction, etc. But
> there is definitely a decline in many areas. To add to this, there is a
> definite decline in the number of tanagers around this year (at this
> location).
>
> Diann MacRae
> Bothell
> tvulture at halcyon.com
>
>