Swallows are on the move. We are seeing gulps (groups of 100 or more) catching their breath and feeding as they head south. Wally and Jim were lucky to catch a gulp at the Little Red Coop at the 5-mile mark of Yachats River Road on a recent morning at 8:30 a.m. Vocal Violet Green Swallows were feeding over the Coop’s Pasture. Who knows where they will end their migration; for the majority, their final destination will be either Central or South America.

So how did SWIFTY do in 2023? Our count for fledges (Tree and Violet Green) was 391 juveniles from 131 boxes. Was this a good year? Well, we haven’t been doing this long (two years of previous data). SWIFTY felt the results fell between 2021—when during the June heat dome we saw great losses due to abandoned nests and dead young—and 2022, which was seemingly better.

We did have losses with 81 dead nestlings, so our survival rate for chicks was 83%. We attributed some of these losses to a very dry summer, which limits the number of aerial insects. Adults also could have died and left the chicks unattended. Not surprisingly, when we could correlate better food supply in areas where we had boxes, there was greater nesting success. One example was instructive. Last spring, we got a call from Lincoln County Parks, which asked for three boxes for Moonshine Park to attract swallows for mosquito/bug control. Close to the park they were putting shrimp waste on fields. These three boxes each had two broods and no loss of chicks or eggs. Nowhere else did we see a box producing two broods, something more common in better food supply years.

Other SWIFTY results included clutches in two of the three Wood Duck boxes, successfully fledging seven ducklings. And two of our three Purple Martin (PUMA) poles had nesting pairs. Over the summer, SWIFTY hooked up with Eric Horvath, who put up PUMA boxes 25 years ago on pilings on the three major rivers in Lincoln County. With Eric, we initiated a count of the PUMA population in the County. We are completing that survey now (current estimate of 142 mating pairs) and will publish the results in Oregon Birding later this fall.

Plans for next year are already beginning to shape up. Given our success at Moonshine, Lincoln County Parks has asked us to look at all 17 of their parks for opportunities for both swallow and Purple Martin boxes. As part of our effort with Eric Horvath, SWIFTY is going to add and refurbish PUMA boxes along the Siletz, Yaquina, and Alsea Rivers. This could mean as many as 50 new nesting boxes or tubes.

The SWIFTY Team: Jim, Wally, Bob, Cathy, and Robert