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I wanted to share a short story about Tree Swallows on my Bluebird trails. There have been a noticeable reduction in TRES this season and after monitoring boxes over the last two weeks I’ve discovered three TRES nests with hatchlings which have either been abandoned or experienced some type of predation. Initially the hatchlings appeared to be well developed; almost full size prior to fledging. My next visits to three of these boxes I’ve found all hatchlings dead and partly decomposed and very stinky. When I empty the contents and do a quick inspection of the contents I have not found any parasites. Bluebird nest boxes have not experienced this decomposing, but I have had a couple of boxes with signs of predation, missing eggs, eggs on the ground under the box or just abandoned nests.
I’ll keep an eye on this. My experience has been that TRES only raise one brood and move on. I don’t know if that is normal. Many Bluebird pairs will produce a second brood. The season here is short and I haven’t had any third broods.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
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