All the lost swallows are in our neighborhood.

Ted Ryan
Fredrickson, WA

On Jun 22, 2012, at 12:31 PM, Blake Iverson <coopershwk at gmail.com> wrote:

I've also noticed a change in visible bird populations. Even more so with cliff swallows than anything. I think a combination of how structures are built these days and increasing pressure from starlings and house sparrows is having a negative effect on some species and causing others to adapt by changing their preferred nesting habits that we interpret as population decline. It's been hard for me to have a good grasp of it in my neighborhood since I have a nesting pair of merlins which keep swallows out of the area or keep feeding evaluations very high above the merlins.

No doubt the maturing of landscapes on some people's property forces a change in nesting habits for these birds as they probably find it too risky to nest and forage where they're at high risk for attack from accipiters and it invites the pests like sparrows and starlings to launch attacks. A dairy farm or other farm set up could arguably provide the same dilemmas but the size of the building etc allows for room to spread out.



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Blake Iverson
Marysville,WA
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