This is just a stab in the dark, but it's been so cold and wet this year that there couldn't be anywhere near the usual number of flying insects available to the swallows. I wonder if your bird was starving?

Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.


On May 11, 2011, at 9:43 PM, Ed Newbold wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Yesterday around 1 PM Paul and I were out on our porch enjoying the sunshine and I watched two Violet-Greens fluttering against the side of our neighbor's house inspecting a hole a flicker had drilled earlier and the neighbor had patched. It was such an inferior hole to our swallow box (the one you gave me) right in plain sight. I asked Paul why they were avoiding our box to look at such a meager hole. He said he'd heard some scratching and stirring within our box and he wondered if something was in there. But what could it be? We got the ladder and Paul went up and opened the box. He said, "There's a swallow in here." He brought down a female V-G in his hand. She was making no effort to resist. She opened her eyes and I thought in that moment she was so beautiful, I had to do whatever I could to help her. I ran into the house and called BEAKS, the bird rehab place about 40 miles from our house. THe woman who runs the center said not to give her any food or water, put a towel in a box with a lid and put her in there and keep it dark and come in right away. In a few minutes we were off with the swallow in a box on Paul's lap. When we got to the rehab center, the bird was still alive. The woman who runs the center and a volunteer immediately took her into another room and gave her liquid food with a dropper. They had little to say to me. I signed a surrender form and made a donation.
>
> Later that afternoon the woman called me back and said nothing appeared to be broken, no visible injury and the bird was continuing to eat and move around a little. My theory is that she was just starving and dehydrated from being trapped in the box, but we can't figure out why she was trapped in the first place. We've seen other swallows go in and out of the box, and even a House Sparrow (which is why we took the box down last year.) Now Paul refuses to leave the box in place. He's afraid of this happening to more swallows. Do you have any light to shed?
> End Quote.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help or informed speculation even.
>
> Ed Newbold Wildlife Artist
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20110511/d0792787/attachment.htm