Ed and The Rest, Congratulations on the Rough-winged Swallows and as usual the great photos. Regarding the Tree Swallows losing out to the Bluebirds, Dave Raines and I were discussing just the other day, that we have noticed on the Bluebird trails, that the Tree Swallows don't start nesting quite as early as the Bluebirds. One option is to put up a second box for the Swallows. The two species won't allow their own species to nest close by, but they will allow others. Tree Swallows will also drive off House Sparrows that will kill Bluebirds and take over their boxes. Roger Mayhorn Compton Mt ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Talbott To: Buchanan Birds Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:04 PM Subject: [bcbirdclub] Swallows and Ground Bees Buchanan Birders, I spotted a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows over the Levisa River behind my house this morning. When I got home their numbers had doubled to four. The Tree Swallows are still investigating the two Bluebird boxes in the yard but apparently have been beat to the punch by a pair of Bluebirds - one of the boxes has 5 blue eggs in it today. Ground Bees are swarming all over the yard. The are very docile and several landed on me as I was taking their pictures today. Flowers are showing up everywhere now. No doubt that spring has sprung. For those interested, here are some pictures of the ground bees, the bluebird eggs, and some flowers I found around the yard. http://www.pbase.com/aquilaet/bees Ed and Michelle Talbott Grundy, VA __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com