BirdNote®
Nest Cavities — E book Early
Written by Bob Sundstrom
That is BirdNote!
[Rapid series of male Tree Swallow’s song-like notes]
A flash of glittering darkish blue cuts by the grey of late February, as a male Tree Swallow glides low over a cattail marsh. The Tree Swallow’s liquid notes trace at spring’s method. [Repeat rapid series of male Tree Swallow’s song-like notes]
The place a broad, inexperienced pasture meets the forest edge, there’s a second, even brighter flash of blue. A male bluebird alights on a fence submit, the extraordinary blue of its again glints within the welcome daylight of late winter. [A bit of Eastern Bluebird song]
Tree Swallows and all three North American bluebird species are among the many earliest northbound migrants to reach, heralding spring a month earlier than the equinox. Each species will nest solely in cavities, similar to outdated woodpecker holes or man-made nest-boxes. The provision of such specialised nest websites is proscribed. Competitors is intense. By arriving so early, Tree Swallows and bluebirds enhance their possibilities of discovering unoccupied cavities – they usually could fiercely guard a nest website till April, earlier than truly nesting.
Each species profit drastically from nest-box applications. However it’s essential to place up solely nest-boxes with very particular hole-sizes that encourage these flashy blue migrants however deter non-native starlings and Home Sparrows.
To study tips on how to present simply the suitable dwelling for Tree Swallows and bluebirds, come to our web site, BirdNote.org.
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Music of the birds offered by The Macaulay Library of Pure Sounds on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Tree Swallow recorded by G.F. Budney. Jap Bluebird recorded by W.L. Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and performed by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Govt Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org February 2014/2018/2020/2022 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID#022306cavityKPLU cavity-01b-2010-02-17-MS
