Archive for April, 2007
The Chattanoogan, TN - Apr 4, 2007
Charles and Dreama Dean
posted April 4, 2007
Club officials have declared a winner in the March “Shot of the Month” competition sponsored by the Riverwalk Birding Club.
With a total of 122 votes in the public web poll posted here on Chattanoogan.com Outdoors, an overwhlming 51% selected “Wind Beneath My Wings” as the best out of ten entries.
Some of the voters commented, “Awesome pictures,” “They were all so good. Congratulations to the photographers. ,” “Thanks for letting the public vote,” “Great pictures,” “Super,” “All pictures were great,” and finally, “I went with Timber-r-r-r- because the name Wind Beneath My Wings makes me think of a song I do not like .”
You can view all of the entries here.
Harold Sharp says “If you would like to view these beautiful birds up close, drive up Amnicola Highway, turn toward the Election Headquarters building at the red light, turn right at the first intersection then right again on the first road, go into the Riverwalk Parking lot at south end of Amnicola Marsh. Look for a bluebird box on your left and another one on your right in the cul-d-sac, both boxes have Tree Swallow nest. This is where the photo was made. You should see the Tree Swallows near these boxes.
Tree Swallow are the first to return in the spring, Jan Chadwell reported Tree Swallows at this location on March 5th. They range in winter as far as Costa Rica, they nest in colonies like Purple Martins, they adapt easy to nest boxes around water or ponds. Underparts are pure white, upperparts on male are Glossy Blue-Green or metallic blue. We have boxes at Greenway Farm, near the Martin Houses, and several more along the riverwalk with Tree Swallow Nest. They line their nest with feathers.
We hope you enjoy them.
April 27th, 2007
Scotsman, UK
‘There was a lot of blood and a lot of missing feathers’
Jamie Hall, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
EDMONTON — The fight, says, Geoff Holroyd, unfolded like an episode of “Animal Kingdom, Jerry Springer-style.”
A female peregrine falcon received a rude homecoming when she landed in her nestbox at the University of Alberta Monday night after completing a 26-day 6,500-kilometre journey.
She came face to face with an intruder — another female who’d taken the nest over in her absence.
What ensued was a battle royale that left both birds bloodied and beaten.
The aerial fireworks were witnessed first-hand by Holroyd and fellow biologists Wayne Nelson and Alastair Frank, who’d camped out on the roof of a nearby parkade to await the Edmonton bird’s arrival.
It, and a peregrine falcon from Calgary, had both wintered fairly close to one another in Colombia and were tracked back to their homebases using new technology, solar-powered transmitters that allowed biologists their closest look ever at the birds’ migration.
The Calgary bird made it back to Cowtown days ahead of its Edmonton rival, which, says Holroyd, seemed to “stall” over northern Texas.
It may have just been saving up energy; it suddenly “rocketed” out of Texas and into Wyoming.
It left northern Wyoming three days ago and quickly covered the remaining 1,270 kilometres to Edmonton, arriving Monday night just after 8 p.m.
Its mate flew out to greet it, says Holroyd, then veered off to his roost as the female approached the nestbox. (Males, says Holroyd, do not get involved in territorial battles and will “stand by and let the females duke it out.”)
“When she landed on the nest site,” says Holroyd, “she turned around, and, boom, there’s the interloper — the mistress, if you like — in her face.”
The fight began instantly. The females locked talons, then began biting each other using their bills.
Eight minutes later, still locked in mortal combat, they tumbled to the edge of the nestbox and out, landing on a rooftop about 10 feet below, out of sight of witnesses.
“We could hear them squawking,” says Holroyd, “but we couldn’t see them.”
Frank, meanwhile, managed to convince a security guard to let him onto the rooftop, and, once there, they separated the combatants.
“They had fought for 25 minutes before they were separated,” says Holroyd. “There was a lot of blood, and a lot of missing feathers.”
After weighing and measuring both birds, the biologists decided to let the interloper go and to keep the other falcon overnight.
When they released her this morning from a building two kilometres from the nestbox, she wasted no time in returning to the battle site, covering the distance in less than 90 seconds.
The interloper met her and gave chase, and the pair covered about three city blocks before engaging in a mid-air battle. Locked together, they tumbled to the ground, landing in the back yard of a residence.
The homeowner, startled by the racket, went to investigate and scared the birds to flight.
The Edmonton bird flew north, says Holroyd, the interloper back to the nest site.
It wasn’t over yet.
An hour later, the Edmonton bird appeared at the nest site again.
“The (interloper) gave chase,” says Holroyd, “but only for a kilometre or so; it broke off and came back to the nest.”
For now, at least, the Edmonton bird seems resigned to its fate and hasn’t returned.
The best-case scenario, says Holroyd, is that she’s gone in search of another mate, and another nest.
“Two years ago, she was the one who chased another female from the nestbox at the University,” says Holroyd, “so I guess you could say that what goes around comes around.”
jhall@thejournal.canwest.com
April 25th, 2007
Malta Today, Malta - Apr 22, 2007
Silvio Camilleri (see facing page) has evidently never watched The Muppet Show. Otherwise, as this classic illustration amply shows, he would have known what thousands of five-year-olds the world over already know.
Eagles have eyebrows.
However, I’m not at all sure whether Attorney Generals have eyes. Yes, yes, I know justice is supposed to be blind, and all that. But the reason I question Camilleri’s faculty of vision has nothing to do with aquiline superciliousness. It is his objection to the “hypothetical” cases I alluded to in my article last week.
Erm… how can I put this gently? Those cases are not actually hypothetical at all. Like eagles’ eyebrows and cuckoo’s nests, they exist. I am not at liberty to go into too much detail – any more detail and I might let slip that I actually did some research, shocking as the thought may appear. But the Attorney General can howl his disapproval from the hilltops, denounce my shoddy journalism from the pulpit, and swoop down like a browless buzzard on any of the inaccuracies in my article (of which one, the date, was a rather obvious slip: instead of writing the date of the ruling, I inadvertently took down the date on which I wrote the article)… but none of this will change the fact that I was referring to real instances involving real people, with only one or two minor modifications to disguise identities and circumstances.
Naturally, this does not mean that all these ongoing investigations will actually result in prosecutions. But if they do… boy, oh boy. I mean, think about for a second. Aren’t you curious to see how the Attorney General will handle these cases, after having already dismissed the scenarios in question as “incongruous”, “misconceived” and… what else? Oh, just read the article on the facing page for yourselves.
Hang on, it’s just occurred to me. This is all by the bye. For the Attorney General has just publicly assured us all that no case resembling my “flawed” scenarios will ever come to trial. Well, I will be holding him to that promise. In fact, Dr Camilleri can rest assured from now on, my eagle eyes will be glued to all future cases of money laundering brought before the Maltese courts. And if there is even the ghost of a resemblance between any future money laundering case, and the scenarios described in my article last week…
But of course, there won’t be. How can there be, now that the AG has made it so abundantly clear that my entire take on money laundering was mistaken?
While I’m on the subject of birds and their body parts… Recently, I encountered a couple of hunters who - after mistaking me for a passing Scop’s owl and pumping me full of lead pellets - tried to convince me that there really is a case for spring hunting in Malta.
I hasten to add that both these hunters are what you would call the traditional types. They do not shoot out of season; they do not shoot protected species (only joking about the owl); and they certainly do not go out hunting on boats (which, by the way, is about as “traditional” as fishing for lampuki from a plane). So, satisfied that I was in the presence of the Real McCoy, I thought I’d actually hear them out for a change.
The way it was explained to me (or rather, the way I understood it) was this. Apparently, there is a huge difference between autumn and spring turtledove migration. The former is something of a nonchalant affair. The latter, on the other hand, has a certain indefinable air of urgency about it.
The reasons are simple. In autumn, turtledove are leisurely making their way south for the winter (as you do, if you’re a bird). The factors prompting them to commence this southward journey are chiefly climactic: as Europe cools down ahead of winter, turtledoves figure out that the longer they hang around, the more uncomfortable life will become, and the greater the chance that they might actually freeze to death at night. But the onset of winter is not uniform throughout Europe: some parts get cold sooner than others, and not always at the exact same time. So when the birds finally come to their individual conclusions that a quick trip to Africa might not be a bad idea, they do so separately, one by one… not in their millions, but in dribs and drabs.
And they’re not in any hurry, either. They’ve got all the time in the world, and for this reason they don’t always take the quickest route (which, at least in the central Mediterranean migration route, would bring them directly over Malta). Sometimes they take roundabout diversions, swinging past Lampedusa or Pantalleria to drop in on a few long lost feathered friends.
The return journey? That’s a different story altogether. On the way back to Europe, the turtledoves are in something of a rush. Not because they have pressing work appointments back home, or because their visa might expire while still half way over the Sahara… but because they are PREGNANT. (Well, the females are, at any rate. On the subject of males, many birds – not too sure about turtledove, I must admit – are unlike most Maltese males in that they are naturally monogamous. This means that ducks, swans, etc., will choose only one partner, and stick together till death do them apart… which, unfortunately, tends to happen quite a lot here.)
Anyway: I’ve never been pregnant myself, but I am told that it can often be a stressful affair. Now just imagine how stressful it would be if you also had to fly several thousand miles between the time of impregnation and actually giving birth. I would imagine time suddenly becomes a rather important factor. The birds might linger, but their pregnancy will not. And unlike humans, they cannot just mistake their offspring for the garbage, and dump it in a shoebox somewhere on the street. They need to NEST.
So, unlike the sprinklings of autumn, spring mass migration tends to involve large numbers of frantic birds flying directly to their destination, usually by the shortest possible route. This is why there is an element of truth to hunters’ claims that autumn numbers are conspicuously less than those in spring. And this is also why, according to my hunting informants, autumn migration is so far superior to its spring equivalent.
OK, so far I think I can see their point. But for one tiny detail. Actually, two:
One: If the turtledoves are desperately trying to reach Europe in time to lay their eggs, then I would have thought that the act of brutally decimating them before they succeed is a good deal more reprehensible than if they were just milling around with nothing better to do… as is the case in autumn, when, surprise! It’s actually OK to shoot them.
Two: If you argue that it’s perfectly fine to shoot turtledove in spring because they are more numerous than in autumn (for all the reasons outlined above)… then surely that argument would hold, not just for turtledove and quail in Malta, but for all birds, and indeed all beasts, in all countries everywhere. If sudden abundance could be considered any justification for spring hunting, then why just here? After all, spring in Europe is proverbially associated with the sudden spectacular return of the swallow… as well as the swift and the stork, the badger and the bear (which comes out of hibernation at roughly the same time), not to mention the beaver, the bullfrog, the bittern and the bunny-rabbit, just to complete the animal alliteration.
So really and truly, what we should be arguing for is not a “special exception” for little Malta, but a movement to legalise spring hunting… all over the world.
I’ll leave it to you to work out what kind of a planet we’ll be living in if this had to actually come to pass. But then again, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Let’s face it: we are, after all, living in one of the very few countries to have traditionally always permitted hunting in spring. The result? Look around you. The barn owl, the jackdaw, the kestrel, the peregrine falcon… all these birds used to breed here. None of them do anymore. Any idea why?
Don’t all speak at once, I can’t make out what you’re saying…
April 24th, 2007
Hudson Reporter, NJ - Apr 15, 2007
Hudson County has experienced a housing boom in recent years. Now the area’s winged residents, whose habitats were sometimes disrupted by the construction, are seeing their own homes built.
Along the Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus and throughout the Meadowlands region, the staff from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) has installed hundreds of bird nesting boxes to welcome home its tree swallow population.
The tree swallows, which return to the Meadowlands every year at this time in an annual rite of spring, enjoy a lifestyle that many of their non-flying friends would clearly recognize.
Suburban-style birds
The tree swallow is an approximately 5.5-inch bird with a striking metallic blue upper body and a white underbody. They are indigenous to lakeshores, streams, and marshes. Tree swallows live in the holes of dead trees that were hollowed out by other birds and animals.
A decline in natural habitats for this species, largely due to development, inspired the effort to start constructing nesting boxes for these birds.
The NJMC joined this effort 10 years ago. Gabrielle Bennett-Meany, the NJMC’s outreach naturalist in the wetlands division, described how location is just as important for birds as it is with people when it comes to real estate.
“These particular nest boxes were designed to sit out over the water,” she said. “Tree swallows are one of the few birds that will nest somewhat over the water. They’re not going to go out deep, but they like just off the edge. They feel that much safer.”
NJMC workers have lined the edge of the Meadowlands marsh shoreline with hundreds of nesting boxes. Apparently, in the same way that many Secaucus residents came to town from the more crowded parts of Hudson County seeking space, tree swallows also prefer to live someplace where they can spread their wings.
“We put the boxes a couple of feet apart, because they are a little territorial,” Bennett-Meany said. “They don’t want your family too close to their family.”
Bennett-Meany also noted that while tree swallows exhibit a preference for single-family homes, one of their neighboring bird species, the purple martin, lives very differently.
“Purple martin houses are designed like an apartment building,” she said. “It’s very large, and they like living next to each other. Meanwhile, tree swallows want more exclusively waterfront property.”
Tree swallows also like to live in places where their version of fine dining is readily available.
“The water’s edge is the zone where a lot of the insect activity begins,” she said. “That’s what tree swallows mainly feed on. A family of tree swallows can consume a couple of hundred of midges [small insects] a day.”
Tree swallows challenged by competition
NJMC spokesman Jeff Fucci explained why his organization helps the tree swallows with additional housing.
“Tree swallows face a lot of competition from other species and also in finding habitats,” he said. “These nesting boxes are a wetlands biodiversity enhancement that give them a place to stop along the Atlantic flyway. Without them, life may be more difficult for them.”
Besides the occasional predatory hawk, Bennett-Meany mentioned which factors help to make competition stiff for tree swallows when they arrive in the Meadowlands.
“Woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters after they make living holes with their beaks,” she said. “Tree swallows are the secondary cavity nesters. But the following year, a squirrel, another animal, or another bird might want the hole. In this area, there has been a lot of encroachment over the last 40 years. With less and less trees available, there have been less and less habitats for the birds. But what we found was in the same way people put bird houses in their backyards to attract birds, what we call bird nesting boxes attract birds. Tree swallows readily adapt to these nest boxes, so much so that the project has grown to accepting six to eight hundred boxes from community groups that want to help.”
Community backs birds
Community groups began putting up bird nest boxes throughout the Meadowlands 20 years ago under the auspices of Don Smith, the former NJMC naturalist. Smith began by putting up 24 boxes. When Bennett-Meany began helping him 15 years ago, the number was close to 100. Now that she manages the distribution of hundreds of bird nest boxes each year, Bennett-Meany described how the job gets done.
“I always leave it up to the group to decide what they can manage, because they have to fund it themselves,” she said. “The groups bring back their finished boxes to me, then I figure out where to put them.”
The NJMC also hosts bird nest building workshops, which encourage community involvement in the spring nest box project. These groups often engage in contests to see who can come up with the best looking non-toxic nest boxes. Groups that have built nest boxes over the years have included People to People International of Secaucus, several local Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops, and Pathways to Independence, a Hudson County group for people living with disabilities.
“When the little kids do it, their box doesn’t always have a uniform look, but the birds don’t care,” Bennett-Meany said. “They aren’t going to be as choosy as you and I are when it comes to renovation. As long as they’ve got a place to live, they’re OK with it. It’s a home.”
Bennett-Meany noted that the seasonal shift makes the work being done now very important.
“The birds like to winter where we like to winter: Florida and South America,” she said. “This work we are doing is a springtime activity because we are timing the migration. If we don’t place the boxes out here now when it’s still a little cool, we’re going to miss when they start coming up from down south.”
The Meadowlands has experienced an environmental revival in recent years, with over 260 bird species now calling the area home. However, Bennett-Meany admits that one species definitely has a special home in her heart.
“We love tree swallows,” she said. “People come here to view them and to photograph them. They are special. People should come out and see them. You can get such awe and pleasure out of seeing that little bird. It’s instant gratification. You get to watch them build a home.”
Mark J. Bonamo can be reached at mbonamo@hudsonreporter.com.
April 20th, 2007
Nantucket Independent, MA - 22 hours ago
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
This week’s bird, like last week’s, has greatly benefited from its association with humans but, unlike the Rock Pigeon, has done so without having its reputation soiled. Truly, almost everyone loves swallows. This is the national bird of Estonia, representing clear blue sky and happiness!
Our swallow is just now returning from spending the winter as far south as Argentina. We are talking about the Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica. Pliny the Elder referred to it as ‘hirundo’ in his writing, and ‘rustica’ connects to the countryside. Originally North America’s Barn Swallow was thought to be a different species from the European ones and was given the species name ‘erythrogaster’ meaning red-bellied. Nowadays that name is just tagged onto the end as a subspecies.
But what’s this about ‘Quaggas’? Quaggas went extinct in the late 19th century. They lived in South Africa and were like zebras but only had stripes on the head and neck. How could you connect them to swallows? I’m going to make you wait for that one.
Barn Swallows are larger in length than sparrows, but fully a third of that is tail. This species is the only swallow with a true ’swallow’ tail. The adults have long streamers astern. These graceful appendages are spread wide and snapped together as they go through their aerobatic flight. Their color is an iridescent blueblack above, with deep red-orange on the throat and a lighter orange wash on the belly.
Their diet is almost completely insectivorous - the studies say 99.82 percent. Reminds me of Ivory Soap being 99 and 44/100ths percent ‘pure.’ I always wondered about that remaining 0.56 percent.
So Barn Swallows consume a huge amount of insects, catching virtually all of them in flight. Between all this flying to catch food, and their long migration route, it was once estimated that a ten-yearold Barn Swallow would have flown more than 2,000,000 miles. Most Barn Swallows don’t make it to that age, however.
Barn Swallows have always benefited greatly because of man’s activities. Before we built structures to which they could attach their nests, they were restricted to nesting on rocky ledges and in caves. Their name indicates their preference for a nesting site. In Asia they are called ‘House Swallows,’ not so many barns there, and in England, simply the Swallow. Other swallow-like birds are called martins there.
The swallows arriving now are almost all males. Early males claim the best territory but it’s also a risk since they are dependent on insects in order to live. A prolonged cold snap can result in starvation. Once the girls arrive the courtship flights are spectacular. Then you can hear the exhilarating trills and chortles of these artistic fliers as they develop their pair bonds.
Barn Swallows build mud nests, actually creating an adobe-like material with mud and straw. They industriously gather sticky mud and patiently roll it into little balls that are then scooped up and balanced atop their beaks as they fly to the nesting spot, typically high under an eave. These little ‘bricks’ are then applied to the wall. Even the smallest amount of texture is enough for them to plaster onto. Mixing mud with straw, horsehair, or other fibers makes this a strong enough platform to provide a nesting cup, often lined with feathers. Both Mom and Dad work together on this project constantly for a week or more, up to 14 hours a day. These are social birds and frequently there will be a group of nests under a single eave.
Nesting sites can be very creative. One pair nested for years on a railroad car that made a two-mile round trip every day. Also they have nested on a series of steamships that ply Lake George in upstate New York.
After raising, in some cases, two broods of five youngsters by late August our Barn Swallows are on their way south again. I won’t discuss Monty Python’s assertion that they carry coconuts with them as they fly. Heaven knows, a 14,000-mile round trip is difficult enough without baggage.
Barn Swallows are among the first signs of autumn on the Florida peninsula. From the first of August on, a steady stream of them heads south along the gulf beaches. Our eastern population crosses the Caribbean while those in the west go through Mexico. Despite a long and arduous annual migration, with the help of humans, Barn Swallows are thriving.
Perhaps you are still wondering about swallows and Quaggas. The connection leads us to Pieter Boddaert, a Dutch naturalist from Utrecht. He provided the name for our swallow and also for the Quagga, Equus quagga. Maybe he was ‘gaga’ about Quaggas, but that idea is a bit hard to ’swallow’ since he probably never encountered live specimens of either Quaggas or American Barn Swallows. At any rate, Mr. Boddaert is the link between these two very diverse animals.
George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy ’social’ birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.
April 19th, 2007
By Dolores Harrington
Published: Friday, March 23, 2007 2:20 PM CDT
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The first hummingbird in our area was reported last Sunday by Betty Smart at Gurdon. She had an adult male ruby-throated hummingbird at a feeder that morning.
It took a bit longer for the little birds to get to Arkadelphia, I guess. I got a call from Milrene Copeland Wednesday morning, and she had seen a hummingbird. By the time I got home from work, there was one at my feeder. All those birds were adult males; they usually arrive ahead of the females.
The only swallow I had seen until last Saturday was a northern rough-winged swallow Saturday before last. I was sure we would find barn swallows last weekend, and we did. Two were perched on a wire along Lakeview Road. There weren’t any swallows at the oxidation ponds, which was surprising.
Renn Tumlison sent me some silhouettes of barn swallows he has shot on Monday (see photo), and his “Nature Trivia” column on Tuesday was about anticipating the arrival of cliff swallows. He e-mailed me Wednesday to report that he had observed cliff swallows involved in nesting behavior in Southwest Arkansas that morning. That is a little earlier than usual, but we have had very warm weather for most of this month.
I hope to have time to look for cliff swallows in this area over the weekend. They have been nesting around here for only a few years, but I see them at the Ouachita River bridge each summer now.
Cliff swallows do not have long swallow tails like the barn swallows, but they have buffy rumps, which is one good identifying mark. The only other swallow with a buffy rump is the cave swallow. So far only one record for that species has been accepted for Arkansas, but they are expanding their range. It’s possible that we will have to be more careful about separating the two species in the future.
The cliff and cave swallows are very similar, and the immature birds are very difficult to tell apart. If we begin to see more cave swallows in the state, I’ll tell you more about the differences in the two species.
I’m watching the parking lot at the office for the northern rough-winged swallows. We’ve had nesting birds in the roof of the loading dock for the last few years, and I expect them to return this year.
Chimney swifts are due to arrive, but I haven’t seen any yet. They are the little birds that look like flying cigars with wings. They should be cruising overhead any day now. I usually hear them chattering and look up to see them.
We didn’t see any shorebirds at the oxidation ponds last weekend, but I did hear one lesser yellowlegs. It must have been flying over; we never found it on a levee or on the riprap.
We didn’t find any summer egrets, either. We drove down Open Banks Road looking for egrets, but had no luck. Cattle egret and green herons are probably around somewhere. We just haven’t looked in the right place at the right time yet.
A friend reported yellow-throated and northern parula warblers at Millwood Lake last weekend. We should have a few warbler species around here any day now. Let me know if you see any unusual or newly-arrived species.
Good birding.
April 17th, 2007
The Chattanoogan, TN - Apr 4, 2007
Charles and Dreama Dean
posted April 4, 2007
With a total of 122 votes in the public web poll posted here on Chattanoogan.com Outdoors, an overwhlming 51% selected “Wind Beneath My Wings” as the best out of ten entries.
Some of the voters commented, “Awesome pictures,” “They were all so good. Congratulations to the photographers. ,” “Thanks for letting the public vote,” “Great pictures,” “Super,” “All pictures were great,” and finally, “I went with Timber-r-r-r- because the name Wind Beneath My Wings makes me think of a song I do not like .”
You can view all of the entries here.
Harold Sharp says “If you would like to view these beautiful birds up close, drive up Amnicola Highway, turn toward the Election Headquarters building at the red light, turn right at the first intersection then right again on the first road, go into the Riverwalk Parking lot at south end of Amnicola Marsh. Look for a bluebird box on your left and another one on your right in the cul-d-sac, both boxes have Tree Swallow nest. This is where the photo was made. You should see the Tree Swallows near these boxes.
Tree Swallow are the first to return in the spring, Jan Chadwell reported Tree Swallows at this location on March 5th. They range in winter as far as Costa Rica, they nest in colonies like Purple Martins, they adapt easy to nest boxes around water or ponds. Underparts are pure white, upperparts on male are Glossy Blue-Green or metallic blue. We have boxes at Greenway Farm, near the Martin Houses, and several more along the riverwalk with Tree Swallow Nest. They line their nest with feathers.
We hope you enjoy them.
Club officials have declared a winner in the March “Shot of the Month” competition sponsored by the Riverwalk Birding Club.
April 16th, 2007
Visalia Times-Delta, CA - 14 hours ago
Every year about this time swallows return to the Central Valley. These birds spend winter months in South America, and then as spring draws near they begin a northward migration through Central America and Mexico in order to spend summer months in North America.
The first migrants appear in southern California in late February, arrive like clockwork at the Mission in San Juan Capistrano on March 19 and a few weeks later they’re in the Valley.
Swallows, particularly cliff swallows, often live in close proximity to people. They feed on insects and spend a large part of each day in the air catching flies, beetles, and mosquitoes. Their long, pointed wings give them great speed and maneuverability. The cliff swallow is about 6 inches long and is the only square-tailed swallow in California.
In contrast, the barn swallow is distinguished by its long, deeply forked tail. The cliff swallow is also recognized by its pale, orange-brown rump, white forehead, dark rust-colored throat and steel-blue crown and back.
While enjoyable to watch, cliff swallows nesting in colonies on buildings and other structures can become a nuisance. Their droppings create aesthetic problems, foul machinery and cause potential health hazards by contamination.
Originally these swallows nested on cliffs and walls of canyons. However, structures, such as buildings, bridges, and overpasses, and agricultural activities have increased the number and distribution of suitable nesting sites, so cliff swallow populations have increased. New homes and buildings on the outskirts of town seem to be ready targets.
Cliff swallows arrive at nest colonies in successive waves. A definite homing tendency exists among adults that previously nested at a colony.
These birds are the first to return, followed by adults that bred at other colonies in previous years and by young birds that have not yet bred.
The younger birds may include individuals not born at the selected colony. In addition to their homing tendency, breeding swallows are attracted to old nests, which are durable and often used in successive years. Old nests are usually claimed on the first day of arrival, although probably not by the original makers. Dilapidated nests are quickly occupied and repaired.
Swallows are protected by state and federal regulations under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
As a result, certain activities affecting swallows are subject to legal restrictions. The California Department of Fish and Game, the enforcement agency, considers Feb. 15 to Sept. 1 to be the swallow nesting season.
Completed nests during this breeding season cannot be touched without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During nesting, a permit authorizing nest removal will be issued only if it can be justified by strong, compelling reasons.
For example, such justification might include a health or safety hazard posed by a nesting colony situated over an entrance, near a loading area of a warehouse or a food processing facility or at an airport if aircraft and maintenance safety are impaired, but not necessarily a person’s home. Therefore, actions to solve problems with swallows should be started as soon as they are identified and before nests are completed.
Protected birds
Cliff swallows are colonial and numbers of nesting birds increases significantly each year. There are no chemical toxicants registered for cliff swallow control and shooting, trapping or harming swallows is not permitted. Therefore, they are best managed by nest removal and exclusion techniques. Nests under construction may be washed down with water or knocked down with a pole.
During nest building, nest removal will require many days of efforts because cliff swallows persistently rebuild nests for most of the breeding season. My experience is that washing down nests two-to-three-times per day for a week will usually discourage the nesting urge and the use of mylar strips, owls and other deterrent devices can be somewhat effective. The drive to nest is very strong and swallows are very persistent, so deterrents usually are not effective during early nesting.
Once nests have been established, exclusion may be the only recourse. Exclusion refers to any control method that denies physical access to the nest site area. Exclusion represents a relatively permanent, long-term solution to the problem.
In California, a permit is not required for this method, if it is done before the birds arrive, during nest building when there are no eggs or young in the nest or after the birds have left for the winter. If swallows have eggs or young in the nest, exclusion may not be used without a permit.
Netting can provide a physical barrier between the birds and the nest site. The mesh size should be 1/2 to 1-inch. Pull netting taut and prevent it from flapping in the wind. The net should not have any loose pockets or wrinkles that could trap and entangle birds.
Some report that hanging a curtain of netting from the eave will prevent nesting. The curtain should be 3 to 4 inches from the wall and extend down from the eave 18 inches or more.
For more information about these birds visit our website at http://cetulare.ucdavis.edu/ and click on Swallows.
Jim Sullins is a University of California Master Gardener. The Master Gardener column appears Thursdays. To contact the Tulare-Kings Master Gardener Program, phone 685-3309, Ext. 225, e-mail cetulare@ucdavis.edu or write to 4437 S. Laspina, Suite B, Tulare, Ca., 93274.
April 13th, 2007
The Courier News, IL - Apr 7, 2007
April 7, 2007
By Gretchen Mckay Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For many families, Easter is not just a joyous religious holiday — it’s also a time to celebrate the coming of spring.
We like to usher in the season at the dinner table with special foods we haven’t had in a while — an Easter ham glazed with pineapple and cherries, or tender spears of asparagus, one of the earliest of the spring vegetables.
Since basting the thigh of a pig doesn’t hold much interest for kids, most children confine their culinary efforts to helping to dye and decorate eggs for Easter baskets; indeed, by about age 6, they’ll expect to take charge of this time-honored craft.
But will your children actually eat the fruits of their labor?
If you’re throwing away more eggs than you’re eating, consider expanding your child’s Easter-crafts repertoire to something a little sweeter. Here, we offer a few new edible projects for the season that are not only fun but are easy for kids of all ages. Who says you can’t have your cake — in this case, one shaped like an Easter basket — and eat it, too?
EDIBLE BIRDS-NEST BOWLS
A sign of spring is birds chirping outside your bedroom window. These whimsical bird’s-nest “bowls” from American Girl’s Mix-It-Up Cookbook resemble what you might find in a tree, but without all those yucky bugs and dirt. And with just three steps (melt, mix, mold), they’re easy enough for even younger children; adults can melt the chocolate, but the kids can form the nests and help fill them.
11-ounce package of butterscotch, chocolate or white chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
5-ounce can chow mein noodles or 5 ounces of pretzel sticks
Candy to fill baskets — jelly beans, M&Ms, miniature chocolate eggs, marshmallow chicks
In a microwavable bowl, add candy chips, and microwave on high for one minute. Remove from microwave and stir. Return, heat for 15 seconds, and stir. Repeat until all chips are melted. Stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add chow mein noodles or pretzels, and stir to coat with candy mixture.
Line three small bowls with wax paper. Pour noodles onto wax paper, dividing noodle mixture evenly into thirds. With back of a spoon, press mixture onto sides and bottom of a bowl. Repeat for other two bowls.
Refrigerate for one hour. Lift by wax paper lining out of plastic bowl. Gently remove wax paper, and fill noodle bowl with jelly beans and other candies. Bowl can be eaten when candy is gone.
Makes 3 bird’s-nest bowls.
– The Mix-It-Up Cookbook
EASTER BASKET CAKE
They may differ in size and shape, but most Easter baskets come in two varieties: old-fashioned wicker or newfangled plastic. This innovative alternative, geared to older children, is made of cake. (That’s right, cake!). The downside is you get to use it just once. The upside is you get to eat it after the candy inside it is gone. That includes the bed of Easter “grass,” which is made of colored coconut.
To achieve the right shape, you bake the batter in a stainless-steel bowl and hollow out the middle. If Mom is an accomplished baker, she can ice the sides in a basket-weave pattern; if not, simple frosting looks just as sweet.
1 box yellow cake mix
1 container frosting
Green food coloring
1 cup shredded coconut
Jelly beans and other Easter candy
Pipe cleaners or Fun Foam for handles
Ribbons
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 1-1/2-quart stainless-steel bowl. Prepare the cake mix according to directions on the box. Pour the batter into the bowl. Bake for 70 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the bowl for 15 minutes, and then unmold it onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.
Turn the cake right side up, and place it on a platter. Cut a circle out of the center of the cake, leaving a 1-1/2-inch border. Scoop cake out of the circle to form a 1-inch-deep crater. Frost the cake.
For the grass, add several drops of green food coloring to the coconut in a zippered plastic bag. Close the bag and shake it well. Fill the crater with the coconut, jelly-bean eggs and other Easter candy.
For the handle, arch 2 pipe cleaners over the cake, or cut a 10-inch strip of Fun Foam. Wrap ribbons around the handle, and tie a big bow in the center.
Serves 10-12.
– FamilyFun Magazine (www.familyfun.com)
CONFETTI EASTER EGG MUFFINS
Your kid loved dyeing those hard-boiled eggs, but he’s not so crazy about eating them. These cupcakelike Easter-egg muffins from cooking expert Barbara Beery are a great alternative — nearly as colorful as the orbs they find in their baskets but a lot sweeter. They make for a great breakfast after the Sunday-morning egg hunt.
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup stone ground cornmeal
1/2 cup light brown or turbinado sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 8-ounce container low-fat strawberry or raspberry yogurt
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chopped fresh strawberries or whole raspberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place muffin pan filled with prepared muffin cup liners on sheet pan. In a large bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Add yogurt, melted butter, egg and vanilla to dry ingredients. Mix well with wooden spoon, making sure to incorporate all of the wet and dry ingredients together. Fold in chopped strawberries or whole raspberries.
Using a ladle or ice-cream scoop, spoon the batter equally among the 12 muffin cups, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.
Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar or a drizzle of honey.
Makes 10-12 muffins.
– Pink Princess Cookbook by Barbara Beery
April 12th, 2007
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO - Apr 8, 2007
By Aisha Sultan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
With a bucket of thawed crickets and a bowl of mealworms next to him, John Miller cautiously opens a small door on the three-story white birdhouse in Forest Park.
He clears out a space next to the nests inside and inserts a mix of the bugs and worms. It may be the only meal the dozen purple martins flying overhead get for days.
The area’s five-day cold snap, which should warm up to the 50s today, could devastate the city’s tiny population of this species of swallow.
Miller is determined to save them.
ike a parent coaxing a toddler to eat, he has tried every trick to help the birds survive, including flipping dead crickets in the air with a large plastic spoon for the high-soaring birds that feed on insects they catch while flying. But the purple martin is a picky eater.
The wild birds depend on man-made housing structures set up and maintained by bird-loving “landlords” such as Miller. More than a million people in North America try to lure these birds to such housing, yet few take up residence. Once purple martins establish a home here, however, the migrating birds return to that exact spot, from as far away as Central and South America. They begin arriving in St. Louis in early March.
Miller, who lives by himself in Brentwood, has been anxious during the recent cold spell. He worries about a potential die-off, in which the city’s entire population of about 100 or so purple martins could disappear.
Enthusiasts describe the birds as giddy — almost as if they are dancing in the air — and chirping excitedly when they come home. The adult male looks nearly black until sunlight catches glints of the purplish-blue feathers on its body. There’s something enchanting about them, Miller said.
Nearly every day, he jogs by the birdhouses he helped establish in Forest Park. Some of the regulars know him as the “bird guy.” During questionable weather, he checks and feeds the established colonies daily.
On Sunday, Miller carried a ladder, a bucket of worms and an empty shoebox on his rounds. He planned to take home any dead or disabled purple martin he encountered. Miller took a deep breath before lowering the housing from its perch on the 40-foot pole.
“It’s a hobby that can lift your heart — and break it.”
Don Ruis, 46, of Dardenne Prairie, knows that heartache. He has cared for a colony of 22 pairs in his backyard for five years. He keeps a supply of frozen crickets in the freezer for emergencies. But a stretch of rainy and windy days last May caught him off guard.
He saw a bird fall to the ground that looked like one from the colony. When he went outside, Ruis found nine dead birds on the ground. There were seven more dead inside the gourds.
“We lost almost our whole colony,” he said. “It was very depressing.”
The day before he discovered the bodies, two purple martins perched right outside his house and looked in the window.
“It was like they were trying to tell me something’s wrong,” Ruis said.
This time, he has spent the freezing days outside flipping crickets to the birds until they caught on and started feeding on them. He has also stuffed their living quarters with extra bugs since Wednesday.
Not everyone agrees with these tactics, Miller said. Some feel that nature ought to take its course. But Miller feels a sense of responsibility to care for the birds that over generations have come to rely on humans.
Little baggies of crickets and Tupperware containers of worms sit next to the ketchup and barbecue sauce on his fridge shelf. On Easter Sunday, Miller heads back to Forest Park, bracing himself for the worst.
He unscrews the front doors of the birdhouse sections and methodically clears a spot for the sustenance he brought. By the fourth compartment, he faces an adult purple martin huddled inside. Not a good sign. But the bird is still alert, and Miller makes a split-second judgment call.
“I’m not going to take him out.”
Miller is trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. He leaves extra food and hopes the bird is just resting or trying to conserve energy. Miller has ordered more crickets online. He will be back in a few days to check whether this one made it.
April 11th, 2007
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