Monday, June 25, 2012

Barn Swallows (Gardner)

While checking on a Great Blue Heron colony in Gardner, on 6/24, this Barn Swallow nest was seen on the side of nearby building. Back in the late 1990's there were two Cliff Swallow nests in the same area of this building, those were a "one season wonder" and they did not re-nest during subsequent years. However, it was nice to observe this family of Barn Swallows through the scope.
There appeared to be 4 young packed in tightly to the nest.

Parent Barn Swallows showed a few times during the visit,
these hunger birds were wanting more.
The Great Blues Herons appeared to have abandoned this nesting sight, 5 to 6 years back there were 8 nests, which dropped to two a few years back and now none. The dead trees they nested in have weakened and collapsed leaving too few "buildable" nesting sites. Perhaps they've relocated to a larger colony adjacent to High Ridge WMA in Westminster.

3 comments:

Andrea Harris said...

How high off the ground was the swallow nest?

Andrea Harris said...

How high off the ground was the swallow nest?

Tom Pirro said...

Andrea,
About 8-9 feet, the photo was taken through a spotting scope from ~100 ft, "reducing" the apparent angle.