Flight school started bright and early this morning for the 3 Violet-
green swallow fledglings. They have been flying short sorties,
returning to rest on and in the nest box. Skill level and confidence
are improving with every flight-they are navigating an airspace thick
with powerlines, trees and buildings with impressive ease. They have
begun to alight upon the thicker power cables and even "play" with
each other as they zoom around. We are strangely bursting with pride
for them.

The swallows are the 5th species of bird to nest and fledge young
this year here in our 60x120 foot lot in the Central District of
Seattle. They were preceded by Bewick's wren, bushtit, black-capped
chickadee, and American robin. (The suspected nest of Anna's
hummingbird was never located). Nary a starling or house sparrow to
be found. The success rate is quite surprising given regular
visitations by raccoon, opossum, crow, neighbour's cats and our own
dogs. We did interfere with attempts made by each of the predators at
least once and are now counted as sworn enemies by the crows.

The crows nested on our neighbour's down-spout and had sight-lines to
3 of our 5 nest. Needless to say, the robins were on high alert the
entire time. Interestingly, one of the crows has an overgrown bill
but seems to be managing quite well. We first noticed the bill 2
years ago and it hasn't gotten horribly long yet, it's about 1/2" too
long and slightly curved.

All in all, a very good year!

Anne Jacobs
Central District
Seattle, WA