FW: [NatureNS] Whither our Swallows

Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:15:12 -0400
From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca>
To: NatureNS <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
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Back in the days when Peter Whelan was writing wonderful weekly columns in
the Saturday Globe and Mail, there used to be huge swallow roost in a big
cattail marsh near Pembroke, Ontario, wherever that is.

I know that post-fledging swallows often form big flocks during that time
leading up to emigration, and any bird that forms big flocks (except
starlings, of course) becomes more difficult to encounter if the number of
flocks is limited.

We used to have big post-fledging flocks of tree, bank, and barn swallows
perching on the wires around the Wolfville sewage ponds out on the dykeland
east of Wolfville, but apparently not so in recent years?

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
----------
From: Mike McCall <mikemccall@xcountry.tv>
Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:47:50 -0300
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: [NatureNS] Whither our Swallows

I recently picked up a book on nature as experienced in Ontario and
found the answer to
the question "Where do all the swallows disappear to after their
young have fledged?"
The answer for Ontaronians, that is.

The authors tell me that in the interval between fledging and migration,
175,000 swallows gather on an island in a river near Bancroft, Ontario.

Another 100,000 gather in the marsh near Kingston, ON, at the mouth
of the
Cataraqui River.

To what destination do our swallows head when the kids are out of the
nest.
Is it in N.S.? N.B.? or is there a gathering place in Maine?
Freeport perhaps, now that the Loonie is doing so well?

Mike McCall


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