[obol] FOY tree swallow, earliest in 21 years
- From: "MS&DL" <maeveanddick@xxxxx>
- To: <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2015 10:01:27 -0800
Yesterday, Feb. 13th, the FOY tree swallow arrive at our 10 acres,
three miles south of Eugene. We have been keeping a record of spring
migrants arrival dates for 21 years, and this is the earliest. All but
three arrival dates have been in early March. The February arrival dates
were: February 17, 1998, February 24, 2014 and February 13, 2015.
We maintain 44 nesting boxes on our property and most are occupied
by tree swallows and violet-green swallows (and two species of chickadees)
but our target species is western bluebird. Interestingly, we also had
three western bluebirds checking out our houses yesterday. Although there
are 44 houses available, as the western bluebirds were checking out one
particular bird house around 10:00 a.m., the tree swallow swooped in on the
bluebirds to chase them away. It was interesting to see the two species
spar over that one house when there were 43 other houses just as desirable
in my opinion. However, that house was occupied by tree swallows last year,
so we assumed that perhaps that particular bird may have nested in that
house last year and was checking it out again for this year.
Dick Lamster
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