February 2024 Update – Shade for Swallows
In April of 2020 Rainier Audubon’s Nest Box Project was initiated after member Dolly Owen contacted board members about nest boxes south of the Emerald Downs in need of repair. Permission was obtained to access the property and a team was put into action to assess the condition of the nest boxes there, several of which were in use at the time by Tree Swallows. Many boxes not being used were cracked, missing a side wall or roof, or had fallen to the ground.
After the nesting season all boxes were removed from the site by Jay Galvin, Ken Schroeder, Dolly Owen and Barbara Petersen. Four housing yellow jackets were left for later removal. With the efforts of Ken, Dolly and Linda Carlson the nest boxes were cleaned, repaired and even improved – each now has a side wall that opens for easy cleaning. They pieced together sixteen weathered, appealing boxes for the next season’s nesting birds. These were reinstalled near Emerald Downs during the winter of 2021. Happily, over half of these boxes were used by Tree Swallows in the spring and summer of 2021.
In the meantime, Rainier Audubon members Joe and Janet Vogel made some nest boxes and installed them at Clark Lake Park in the fall of 2020. Ken Schroeder built twelve beautiful new nest boxes that are ready and awaiting placement. Artist Ed Newbold of Pike Place Market donated two nest boxes to the Rainier Audubon Nest Box Project as well.
Member participation on this Nest Box Project is very welcome! Volunteer opportunities are available for nest box installation, annual maintenance of boxes, monitoring of nest box use by birds. Welcome also are site suggestions for new nest boxes.
Nest Box Photos
January 2022 Update
Ken Schroeder, Dolly Owen, Jay Galvin and Barbara Petersen, members of Rainier Audubon’s Nest Box Committee, met at Emerald Downs last week to clean out the sixteen swallow nest boxes along the south fence. Old boxes in poor condition had been removed in 2020, cleaned and refurbished by Ken Schroeder and Linda Carlson, and reinstalled in January of 2021.Committee members were pleased to discover that fifteen of the sixteen Tree Swallow nest boxes were used last spring/summer. The nests all contained feathers of various duck species, perhaps collected by the swallows from nearby fields on the M Street properties. Three of the nests had abandoned clutches of eggs in them. Were these from a second or third clutch laid too late in the season? Were the parents forced to leave on migration before they hatched? (Would parent birds leave a clutch of eggs in order to migrate?) Did the eggs get too hot last summer? Did human disturbance cause the abandonment?
The nest boxes are now clean and ready for the arrival of Tree Swallows this coming spring. Please contact info@rainieraudubon.org or a Nest Box Committee member if you’d like to help us with future nest box projects. Currently, Ken Schroeder (kenneth.schroeder@rainieraudubon.org) is building new boxes for installation at Soos Creek Botanical Gardens before they open on March 2, 2022.
