Subject: [Tweeters] re: Violet-Green & Barn Swallows
Date: Jun 21 19:34:59 2012
From: Aquila Chrysaetos - ladyhawk707 at msn.com






Tweeters, I've been concerned about the decline of swallows over the last few years in my semi-rural/rural area. In the yard in '06, we had 12 pairs of nesting Violet-greens; in '07 there were nine pairs; in '08, ten pairs; in 2010 & 2011 there were five pairs nesting and this year it looks like five pairs again. The Barn Swallows have gone from nine nesting pairs in 2009 to three pairs this year. The decline is not limited to my yard, but also other traditional V-G and Barn Swallow sites within two miles. Just down the road from my yard are some electrical wires where the local swallows gather in the weeks before they migrate and their numbers were very much reduced the last three years. We've also noticed a steep decline in the numbers of Barn Swallows on M street in Auburn. Part of the reason for the decline may have been the bad weather in 2010 and 2011 which delayed nesting and allowed for only one brood per pair rather than the usual two broods. Then again, the numbers of V-Gs in my yard may be holding steady just because I have the only nest boxes (18 of them) in my little neighborhood. I used to see about three dozen neighborhhood swallows regularly take up the Cooper's Hawk alarm above my yard. The high count this year was a dozen today, but it is more often three or four birds. It doesn't help that folk around here routinely knock down Barn Swallow nests because they don't like the mess beneath them. It would be a relief to find that this is simply a localized decline, but I suspect it is not. Sandy Daniels, Enumclaw PlateauLadyhawk707 AT msn DOT com