Subject: [Tweeters] fledglings returning to nest
Date: Thu Jul 9 10:02:14 PDT 2020
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com

Dear Tweeters,
The Barn Swallows in my barn produced four chicks. About a week ago, one fell out of the nest; it was dead (and headless) when I found it on the barn floor. I am guessing that a small mammal ate part of the bird after it fell.
The three remaining chicks throve. Yesterday (8th July), when I went into the barn, there were no chicks in the nest, and there were quite a few Barn Swallows flying all around me in the barn, calling. They were moving so fast that I could not count them; I could not tell if they were adults or juveniles. I assumed that the young had fledged successfully, and were flying around inside the barn.
A few hours later, toward dusk, I went back to the barn, and all three young Barn Swallows were back in the nest! I don't remember ever seeing a fledged songbird return to a nest before. Checking online, I had to sort through a lot of junk websites, but did see several reasonably good sources that stated that this is rare, but not unheard of. Not as rare as a warbler feeding another species' fledgling, but still pretty cool!
Now, back to a question from a week or two ago, about an egg that I'd found on my gravel driveway. No one ventured a guess, so I will venture mine. I think that the white egg was from a Eurasian Collared Dove. I suppose it could have been from a Red-breasted Sapsucker, but there are already juvenile Red-breasted Sapsuckers in my yard, and I have read that this species raises but one brood per year. I can't think of any other birds in my neighborhood that might lay such an egg, but I might be missing a species or two.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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