Subject: [Tweeters] Cliff Swallow nests?
Date: Apr 22 20:42:39 2010
From: Kelly McAllister - mcallisters4 at comcast.net


I went online to the King 5 website and watched the video report. It all sounded very familiar to me as biologist who often deals with the prospect that a construction project, even when it doesn't need to destroy the actual nests, could wind up being found in violation of the federal law. The only way to achieve certainty that the construction can be completed without breaking the law or experiencing costly interruptions, is to either schedule the work for outside the nesting season or destroy nests prior to eggs being laid and harassing returning birds to keep them from initiating new nests.Since many types of construction are dependant upon favorable weather, it can be very difficult to avoid the nesting season, particularly where there are multiple nesting species with varied nesting chronologies.

This particular roofing project might have been done without unduly disrupting the birds and their nesting activities. At least, a fair amount of tolerance of the presence of people seems typical for Cliff Swallows. I'm sure the nests were down over the edge of the roof, under the eaves.

Kelly McAllister
Black Hat biologist
Olympia, Washington
----- Original Message -----
From: Guttman,Burt
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 7:39 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Cliff Swallow nests?


This evening's KING-5 News had a report on the destruction of Cliff Swallow nests at some building site in the Seattle area. Could someone say what's going on? There seemed to be a lot of the kind of words people say to justify environmental destruction when it can't really be justified, such as some business about dead nestlings in the nests, and now the swallows will have to go somewhere to build healthy nests, so it'll be much better for them. Sure. Anyway, what's happening up there?

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503



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