On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:36:03 -0500, Rusty Mase
wrote:

I live not far from one of the bridges where there is a large coloney
of barn swallows and I think they do a good job of keeping down
mosquitos and other flying insects around here. They appear to have
engourged heavily on the termites that swarmed after the recent rains.
Barn swallows also appear to like some surface water nearby so they
can fly by and kim a drink now and then. I think chimney swifts do
the same.

I cannot build a bridge or put out nearby ponds but I could do a fake
chimney for chimney swifts. Sort of like all that remained of a
burned down house.

Right now the barn swallows are busy feeding their recently fledged
young on the power lines in my neighborhood - and they are sort of a
pleasure to have around.

Rusty Mase

I agree they're a pleasure to have around. We have two barn swallow
nests under the roof that extends from the back of our house a few
feet over the patio. We've been here for two years, and the previous
owners had them before that. They (the birds) just recently fledged a
clutch of four, and had a clutch of three last month.

We look for them to arrive about March 15, and expect them to leave
about September 15, with the last clutch coming about the middle of
August.

I think it might be possible to attract them without having to build a
bridge! Maybe just a 6x8 foot, or so, platform with 2x8 stringers,
raised 8 feet off the ground would do the trick. I just looked to
verify that "our" nests are built on 2x8s.

I'm not interested (yet) in building a chimney swift habitat, but I've
recently bought a bat house from Bat Conservation International, and
I'm looking forward to attracting a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats
next spring.

David in San Antonio