Scuttlebutttlebutt: Swallows
By Mitch McFarland
I wanted to write this column about the disturbing (to me) drive toward another nuclear weapons build-up. All but one of the hard fought treaties to reduce nuclear arms and testing have gone away and the weapons industry is crying out to spend many more billions of your tax dollars “upgrading” our nuclear arsenal. Obviously, Ronald Reagan's belief that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought” isn't suppose to affect our need to “upgrade” a nuclear arsenal that contains almost 5000 times the destructive power of Hiroshima. Do people under 40 even know about Hiroshima? Or care? Are more immediate needs overshadowing our costly and dangerous dalliance with nuclear weapons?
But I am not going to write about that. My wife Madeline thinks that it is not a subject that many of my readers want to read about because they feel like there is nothing we can do (except continue to pay for it). Politicians on both sides of the aisle are, for the most part, gung-ho on nuclear weapons. Trump increased the budget for nuclear weapons and Biden has proposed increasing it further! Jesus.
So I turn my attention to something more prosaic and close to home: swallows.
Our back deck is partially covered and we spend a lot of time sitting on what I call our “Group W bench” (as per “Alice's Restaurant”) enjoying the view of the mountains rising beyond our meadow. Last year a mating pair of swallows build a nest under our overhang and hatched a brood. This year they were trying to come back, but I discouraged them by jumping off the bench and hollering and waving my arms. Nevertheless, their persistence was greater than my presence and they began to build again anyway. I don't dislike swallows at all, but the mess on our deck right where we walk was an inconvenience I was trying to avoid, so I built a little shelf under where they were working to catch the mess. They immediately abandoned that project and began quickly building one on top of the light fixture next to the door leading from the house to the deck. This light is 12 inches from the door and so we have to walk right by their nest every time we exit or enter. Despite having chosen to build there, the swallows were very upset by our numerous trips in and out of the house. Any time we came out the door they would fly away and if we were already on the bench when they arrived with new building material they would quickly retreat, often sitting nearby and chirping at us to leave.
They finished the nest. The female laid 4 eggs and in just over two weeks little peepers were poking out of the nest. Males and females both tend to the young, so they were very busy feeding those four gaping mouths. By this time, brought on by necessity, the parents became a little more used to our presence. They were fluttering all around our heads. After all, we hadn't eaten their eggs or their young. I could now walk past the nest without them leaving—unless I looked at them at which time they would flee briefly. I guess the young didn't know we were a potential danger because even after they fledged they weren't bothered by us much.
We felt privileged to have a very close-up view as the young ones learned to do the incredible aerial acrobatics for which swallows are famous. We assumed they were fattening up for their 5000 mile migration to Costa Rica or Panama (some as far as Argentina). They still piled on top of each other at night above our deck light. One morning Madeline suggested that there might be more eggs in the nest. I thought that idea rather odd, but she got a stepladder and took a peek while everyone was gone and sure enough, there were four more eggs!
I got on the internet to check out swallow behavior and it turns out they can put out two broods a year given the right conditions. As of this writing those eggs haven't hatched yet, but the young ones are helping to sit on the eggs. I actually haven't been able to really tell the young ones from the parents for some time now. They look exactly alike to me, but their behavior is different. I can walk right up to the nest and stare at some of them, the young ones I assume, from 18 inches away and they just keep our gaze locked. I assume it is the parents who still fly away when I closely approach the nest.
It is late July now and according to Wikipedia, I should expect these birds to take off for Central America in August, but they have to hatch those eggs and give the new batch up to three weeks to fledge. Then they all head south together.
I learned that swallows are the most successful birds on earth. They exist everywhere except Antarctica. They are closely associated with humans. In fact, swallows were not that numerous up to the caveman era until humans began building structures that swallows now seem to prefer.
Another thing I learned that may be of interest to coastal dwellers is that swallows will build a nest right beneath an osprey nest. They receive protection from other birds of prey that are repelled by the exclusively fish-eating ospreys. The ospreys are alerted to the presence of these predators by the alarm calls of the swallows. It is another of nature's odd symbiotic relationships.
I believe we all should be informed and concerned about the big issues of the day: climate change, nuclear weapons and power, and the creation of a wealth aristocracy that has such a dominating influence on our society; yet all we do have to remember is to stop and appreciate what natural wonders there are all around us. I think we are especially blessed to live where we do, surrounded by a natural world that refreshes our spirits when the human environment fails to do so.
