Hi Tweets,

A couple days ago at the Mercer Island boat launch under the east channel
bridge, I looked up to see dozens of barn swallow nests with birds busily
flying to and fro. I happily trained my binoculars on the nests only to
find that the majority of the nesting birds were not barn swallows but house
sparrows. We all know that the house sparrows outcompete other cavity
nesters in the highly inhabited areas of our region, but how common is their
invasion of mud nests? There were some barn swallows using some of the
nests, so it doesn't seem to be a matter of timing. Are they evicting the
barn swallows? If only I were a few hundred feet taller, I'd've swept the
bad guys away. No such luck.

Katie

Katie Sauter
King County DNR, Water and Land Resources
201 S. Jackson St., Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 296-0516
katie.sauter at metrokc.gov