Swallows dying by the thousands
- Thread starter ianvr
- Start date
I am sorry to hear of the deaths of thousands of these graceful and social birds. They
were a part of my childhood, returning in the spring to build mud nests in the dairy barn.
I learned much observing the cycle of their lives as they hatched and fed the next generation of shallows on mosquitoes from the barnyard. Their lives gave me a sense of time and doing each day to accomplish a task. The great drama of the swallows lives was the first flight. The barn
was also the home of numerous cats who normally controlled the rodents, but once a year they
sat beneath the nest waiting. The parent shallows would try to distract the cats by swooping and
even touching the cat while the young swallow tried its wings. The birds were clever as they
encouraged the youngsters to try their wings when we were present to protect them. Once in a
while we would find feathers of a young bird who failed to excape the predator. How like are lives
as we grow in the spirtual world. There are many accidents, traps, and predators in the jungle
we inhabit. I discovered that Castanada may have been one such predator on the linked
thread this morning. http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=8488
were a part of my childhood, returning in the spring to build mud nests in the dairy barn.
I learned much observing the cycle of their lives as they hatched and fed the next generation of shallows on mosquitoes from the barnyard. Their lives gave me a sense of time and doing each day to accomplish a task. The great drama of the swallows lives was the first flight. The barn
was also the home of numerous cats who normally controlled the rodents, but once a year they
sat beneath the nest waiting. The parent shallows would try to distract the cats by swooping and
even touching the cat while the young swallow tried its wings. The birds were clever as they
encouraged the youngsters to try their wings when we were present to protect them. Once in a
while we would find feathers of a young bird who failed to excape the predator. How like are lives
as we grow in the spirtual world. There are many accidents, traps, and predators in the jungle
we inhabit. I discovered that Castanada may have been one such predator on the linked
thread this morning. http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=8488
The numbers of swallows dying sounds substantial but these amounts of deaths probably occur every year during the two seasonal crossing of the Sahara of birds going to and returning from Europe. The large world population has been estimated at 190 million(Birdlife.org) with about 570,000 breeding pairs in the UK alone. So it may be safe to assume no long term detrimental effect to the population from this specific incident. This is not to detract from the strange weather happening in southern Africa at the moment though.
GRiM
The Living Force
Your post made me think of how Swallows and bats eat insects, could it be related, Bats and swallows die because bees and insects die? I have not seen any statistic that "insects" are disappearing except bees but they are under a stricter control from bee-farmers that can easily count them. Will try to get back on that if and when I find some data.Keit said:
Here's an article about the UK's disappearing butterflies due to the awful summer of 2007 (adding to an already downward long term population trend for many species)
http://independent.co.uk/nature/why-britains-butterflies-are-desperate-for-a-dry-summer-814753.html
One species not mentioned in the text is the scarce Brown Hairstreak which in its stronghold in Wales(Carmarthenshire) has undergone a 70% decline. This is based on the the number of eggs located over the winter months( the eggs are laid on Blackthorn) I've assisted with other helpers in monitoring this species for the organisation Butterfly Conservation for a number of years now.The summer of 2007 was dreadful for this butterfly with no adult egg- laying females seen at one of the best sites despite at least 3 personal visits. Consequently far fewer eggs were counted.
http://independent.co.uk/nature/why-britains-butterflies-are-desperate-for-a-dry-summer-814753.html
One species not mentioned in the text is the scarce Brown Hairstreak which in its stronghold in Wales(Carmarthenshire) has undergone a 70% decline. This is based on the the number of eggs located over the winter months( the eggs are laid on Blackthorn) I've assisted with other helpers in monitoring this species for the organisation Butterfly Conservation for a number of years now.The summer of 2007 was dreadful for this butterfly with no adult egg- laying females seen at one of the best sites despite at least 3 personal visits. Consequently far fewer eggs were counted.