About a month ago Delia and I were in the Sierra Madre Occidental in far northwestern Mexico, and saw occasional large squadrons of Violet Green Swallows headed north. (There were Olive Warblers and lots of Painted Redstarts down there, as well as Short Tailed and Zone Tailed Hawks, but ominously, no Eared Trogon were seen by our group and none responded to taped calls. These big trogons should be common in that habitat. Nor did we see any Thick Billed Parrots in Copper Canyon, but at least those weren?t expected)
In any case, the Violet Green Swallows have arrived in Seattle and now are embarking on their yearly struggle against House Sparrow competition and Crow nest-predation. The couple that has staked out our house with its four nest boxes today avoided another threat: a Merlin that whizzed past them levitating them both off the telephone wire in the process.
This swallow is declining in inner Seattle in my opinion. What makes me think so? I?ve sold at the Pike Place Market for 18 years and have many memories of the joys of watching these birds all summer from the crafts line. The swallows began to thin out in the 90?s and the last year I was on the line, 1999, I saw only migrating swallows and no resident birds.
I sell violet green swallow boxes, at the market in my shop next to the newsstand at 1st and Pike, (10 to 6 pm 652 5215) and so does Rainier Audubon Society and the Seattle Audubon Society.

--Ed Newbold, Beacon Hill, Seattle newboldwildlife at netscape.net

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