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YXN0LWxhbmd1 All, Just an observation on Barn Swallows. When Don and I had our farm in eastern Ontario, there were always a number of Barn Swallows that nested in the rafters of our barn. They successfully raised many young for the first 20 years we were there. We had no loft, but plenty of ventilation in the stable as we left large doors open at the east and west ends of the barn, so always a good breeze blowing through. The swallows built nests attached to the rafters. The adults would tear through the barn, often giving us a tip of the wing on the head or hat as they zoomed past while we were doing the milking (we kept a large herd of dairy goats at that time). Then, we started having hotter and more humid summers. We noticed this ouselves, not so much because we watched the thermometer, but because Don and I were both very avid hikers and paddlers and we started to find that we could barely stand being out in the sun on hot summer days -- so we would only paddle on creeks overarched by trees. We picked out hikes to avoid open trails over the rock expanses on the Shield. Anyhow, at this time, we noticed a very sad thing happening in the barn. We began to find young birds out of their nests and down dead or dying on the stable floor. We had noticed that, even before they were of an age ready to fly, they would be perching on the edge of the nests and we could see they were distressed from the heat. We couldn't think of anything to do about the situation as we had plenty of vents at ceiling level as well as the aforementioned barn doors that were left wide open through summer. After a couple of summers of almost total losses of nestlings, the swallows stopped nesting in the barn and never returned. I set this time as probably being around the year 2000 or possibly a little before as it was probably 8 to 10 years before I sold the farm after Don died. I am wondering if the swallows find many stables too hot for nesting now -- especially those stables that don't have lofts with full hay mows. That would be a growing trend, I think, as most people now make round bales and don't put so much hay up in their mows. Those barns are probably not so heat-insulated as they once were. Stables such as ours, may have been fine before, but with what seem to be increasingly hot summers, maybe the heat levels are getting to the point that young birds expire. Anyhow, just a first-hand observation of a noticeable decline and then disappearance on my own farm back in eastern Ontario. Bev Wigney Round Hills, NS On 6/27/16, Laviolette, Lance <lance.laviolette@lmco.com> wrote: > Hi Paul, > > Well this birder agrees with you. I’ve seen the demise of small farm cattle > in eastern Ontario as well with pastures and hay fields becoming huge swaths > of corn and soya crops as a result. Anyone who thinks that this is a good > thing should compare the diversity of living things in a soya field to that > of a pasture. > > Gone are the days in this neck of the woods of hundreds of swallows along > the power lines as they were 20+ years ago. > > All the best, > > Lance > > Lance Laviolette > Glen Robertson, Ontario > >
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