Hi Ed (and Tweeters),
Enjoyed your account of swallow godparenting.
We missed the VG Swallows this year because we didn't get our nest boxes
cleaned out in time. We finally got around to building some nice new
boxes but by then the swallows had finished househunting.
A house wren, unusual in our area, took over the customary VG swallow
box and in his zeal for homemaking entirely filled the box with small
sticks. He sang ceaselessly but fruitlessly around the house (no female
ever showed up) for a month, filling two other nest boxes with sticks
during that time, then he vanished. I suspect he became yet another
victim of the black and white stray cat which lurks in our neighborhood.
We did succeed in attracting a barn swallow pair. They returned to a
nest used by a pair (the same?) of barn swallows two years ago, on a
coil of cable hanging on the carport wall near the ceiling. The nest is
only a few feet overhead and we can easily monitor the progress of the
two young, now nearly fully feathered. We don't worry too much about
them but their parents worry about us, so I generally park my car in the
driveway instead.

Brian Pendleton
Auburn WA
kc7wpd at hotmail.com