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| Violet-green Swallow on balcony |
Huzzah! One of the 2 bird boxes put out a couple of weeks ago. The boxes are between 5 & 6 feet off the ground, within easy flapping distance of shrubs or trees. They face open meadow for birdie convivence. I expected, that like the Violet-green Swallow shown above, it would be additional Violet-greens that would go for the boxes. Nope!
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| Westernmost bird box, with a Tree swallow (on right) swooping by |
It was Tree Swallows that adopted a bird box. If you look at the swallow at the top of the blog, you can see this Tree Swallow doesn't have white feathers above its eye. In Sacramento I used to enjoy peeking into Tree Swallow dens, to see the nestlings cuddled up in cozy tree cavities. Bird boxes recreate the 'tree hole' experience for the birds.
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| Tree Swallow perched at box |
Because a pair of Swallows take on a nesting box, does not guarantee they will be successful in raising a clutch of itty-bitties. Other bird species might try to evicting swallows. Most likely such species would be House Sparrows, which I'm happy to state, aren't found at Flying Piggies Farm... thus far anwway. Sometimes evil wasps get into the boxes, or perhaps the magic just doesn't happen for the Swallows. To keep out the instances I can do something about, I'm required to check each nesting box about once per week. I feel a little timid about doing so, but I must be a good landlord to my feathered tenants.
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| The happy Tree Swallow couple |
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| Nice house... but where's the hot tub? |
