Hi, Tweets,

The first HY's of the year are starting to drop out of my Violet-Green
Swallow nest boxes. Today I nearly stepped on four of them..one was obviously
more fully fledged than the others, though none was airworthy. Thinking one of
the pesky house sparrows (who are STILL vying for the boxes) had shoved them
out, I picked them all up and eased them back into the box. Not for long,
though...here came two, indignant of having to do this drop again. That's when
I realized that they'd one, come out on their own accord, and two, there's no
cover for them in my prairie habitat.
At last....a use for broom!! We've been cutting broom like crazy but haven't
had time to pile it all up and burn it. So,,,,,,,,I piled up a bunch of dried
broom underneath all of my nest boxes. Then I picked up the babies and eased
them into the pile under their house. Again, they protested, but the parents
seemed to be more at ease. The last I saw, one of the adults was sitting on
the broom next to a baby, obviously happier that they had some sort of cover
for the kids.

If there's no cover near your nest boxes, it doesn't take much to provide the
babies a place to hide once they've left the nest.
Michelle