Well, the first year or possibly second year female, the one with grey
patches, is going in and out freely, so I'm wondering if she has now taken
over the nest. I just can't imagine it happening since the other female was
an adult. I also can't imagine me missing over such an important detail such
as plumage differences. That's what caught my attention in the first place
aside from the fighting. It deffinately wasn't copulation, that occurs in
open area and takes 30-60 seconds of one hit after the other. ;) This
intruding female also visited weeks ago, and they were fighting inside the
box. I thought my female was batterling a HOSP so I put my hand over the
hole and opened very carefully ready to grab the HOSP but it was another
female TS. We were both surprised! :)




Blake Iverson





>From: "Blake Iverson" <coopershwk at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: coopershwk at hotmail.com
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Tree swallow complications
>Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 19:21:35 -0700
>
>I arrived home from school today to find an intruding female tree swallow.
>Or what I thought was the intruder (I for some reason, when it's needed,
>don't remember what color plumage my TS has). One bird was in the nest hole
>entrance. The other, was flying to the hole, and trying to pull the bird
>out by the forhead. After a few minutes, the bird barreled into the hole
>pushing the intruder into the box where they had a brief but intense fight.
>I normally would have let it be but the eggs needed to be cooled and I
>didn't want any being crushed so I opened the box, one was on top of the
>other. The thing is, one bird was nicely colored, the other had blotches of
>grey in with the blue/green plumage. As opposed to the all blue/green bird.
>If I remember right, both female and male tree swallows, adults, look
>similar. But the male is more intensely beautiful. But I don't remember if
>the birds that have some grey are first year birds or what, and if they're
>male of female. This bird that had the blotches of grey I thought was the
>intruder. But now she is going in and out as she pleases. I had taken her
>and blew on her chest to expose her brood patch making sure she was a
>female. Now I can't figure out whether she's the actual female or not. I
>had THOUGHT the more brightly colored female was mine, but I don't know
>now. Do females (first years possibly or adults) sometimes take over egg
>duty and so on of another nest if they themselves have a nest. I've never
>read or seen this behavior so those that are experienced TS's landlords
>could you give me some info.? Thanks so much!
>
>
>
>Blake Iverson
>Arlington, WA
>coopershwk at Hotmail.com
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*
>http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
>

_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus