Our porch-nesting barn swallows hatched three on the 9th of July and the
ensuing bad, no horrible, swallow weather got me worried about their survival.
But I didn't do anything until one nestling passed away on the frigid night
of the 16th. The next day, cold and windy, we thought we noticed the parents
strongly favoring the bigger baby, so we feared they might be doing a triage,
which is probably a hardwired thing for parents of many species facing bad
times. We went out and stuffed mealworms into the littler kid's mouth, even
though we were busted on occasion by the returning swallow parents. Now that
the weather is better, we stopped worrying, but maybe for old time's sake I
tried to feed the much more mature 2nd nestling today. Little to my knowledge,
however, I had become a troll to these suddenly perceptive youngsters. When I
approached they slumped down till there was nothing but a layer of feathers
low at the bottom of the nest and didn't move till I went back inside the
house. So it seems you can feed a 9-day day old youngster --too dumb or
hungry to care-- but you can't fool a wise old 11 day old youngster.
Ed Newbold, newboldwildlife at netscape.net Beacon Hill

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