January 4, 2017
Pacific Northwest
Reinforcing my certainty that you won’t see cool things if you don’t go outside and look, I present a first-for-me, a Barn Swallow in January! I was excited enough at the time to stand out in the increasing rain and dark to watch it, and try to catch a photo. The one above isn’t the best, but it shows the nice wintry rainy sunset out there at the beach, at 4:05pm on January 4.
Barn Swallows are summer birds for us in North America. They show up in my neighborhood in April or so, nest and raise babies, then depart en masse in September. For some reason this swallow missed the convoy.
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Barn swallows are remarkable in a number of ways. For example, from Birds of North America:
These swallows—not the more famous egrets—have the distinction of having indirectly led to the founding of the conservation movement in the United States: the destruction of Barn Swallows for the millinery trade apparently prompted George Bird Grinnell's 1886 editorial in Forest and Stream that led to the founding of the first Audubon Society (G. Gladden in Pearson 1923).
Why is that? Likely because they have become so much a part of our lives, breeding as they do around our homes. Barn Swallows are practically members of our households, and so we care about what happens to them (not that we shouldn’t care about creatures beyond our personal sphere!).
Originally nesting primarily in caves, the Barn Swallow has almost completely converted to breeding under the eaves of buildings or inside artificial structures such as bridges and culverts.
In North America, this shift in nest sites began before European settlement and was virtually complete by the mid-twentieth century.
Barn Swallows have the widest distribution of any kind of swallow, worldwide:
For me, the densest nearby breeding site is the old Tulalip Tribes salmon processing building by the bay right around the corner from where I saw this swallow. They buzz around the wetland, beach and road all summer, especially abundant after the youngsters fledge.
I have to wonder what this one was hunting for. It was flying along the beach, back and forth, occasionally swooping up over the empty beach houses.
I had a heckuva time trying to get a photo. I knew I needed one for eBird to confirm its identity. My camera did not want to autofocus lock onto the flying bird.
So I put it on manual focus, picked a likely distance for focus, and waited for the swallow to fly by me. Even so, in the increasing dusk, it was hard to get it in frame. This one is the best I got, with a bonus: Sharkfin Rock, a notable feature in this bay, in the background for context.
I’m not sure whether it’s a female or a juvenile. Definitely not a male. They have long tail streamers.
According to eBird and Birdweb, Barn swallows are rare but very occasionally seen in Washington in winter. It must be feeding on something.
There’s also the issue of molting, which goes on in December and January. How safe is it for a single swallow in a cold climate to molt flight and insulation feathers?
From Journey North, which tracks Barn Swallow migrations (www.learner.org/...).
January
- Virtually all barn swallows are in South America now, finishing up their body and flight feather molts before migration begins. (Emphasis mine)
February
- Most American Barn Swallows are in South America. The very first breeding birds reach southern California and Texas. Some early migrants pass through Mexico. They are almost done molting.
March
- Most migrants pass through Central America. Some reach central states. They are done molting in time for most of their migration and their breeding cycle.
April
- Barn swallow migration peaks in central states, starting to breed in South. Some are reaching northern states and southern provinces.
- Journey North (www.learner.org/...)
Barn Swallows have shown themselves to be very adaptable birds. That’s a flexibility that will be called upon as global climate change affects their environment in profound ways this century. There’s some sign they are diversifying their migration and breeding in the Western Hemisphere, where they currently have a very long way to fly right now. Evidently some populations are migrating internally in South America, breeding in Argentina (www.audubon.org/...) now.
The effects of global warming elsewhere may create a bigger challenge than swallows can manage,
The the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds. Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.
but their close association with humans may help them out:
Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.[46]. Wiki
On the other hand, swallows depend on insects, and there’s been a decline of summer insect food over the past few decades. Insect populations in Europe have been dropping precipitously, as research results from places like Germany have demonstrated:
The mass of insects collected by monitoring traps in the Orbroicher Bruch nature reserve in northwest Germany dropped by 78% in 24 years.
GRAPHIC) G. GRULLÓN/SCIENCE; (DATA) M. SORG ET AL., MITTEILUNGEN AUS DEM ENTOMOLOGISCHEN VEREIN KREFELD 1, 1–5 (2013) © 2013 ENTOMOLOGISCHER VEREIN KREFELD (www.sciencemag.org/...)
I’ve been checking the beach where I saw the winter Barn Swallow a few days ago, haven’t seen it since. However I did read a report one was seen on the windowsill of a neighboring island about 5 miles away, a couple of days after I saw mine. Perhaps it’s the same individual, out seeking a food source. I hope this little guy can hang on until spring.
Do you get Barn Swallows where you live? What’s your experience with them?
The Daily Bucket is now open for your recent nature observations. Are you seeing snow, rain or clear skies today?
It’s cloudy with more rain on the way here in the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday it poured rain most of the day. Temps are in the mid 40s.
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