SWIFTY Beaver Creek Project

 Wally and I made good progress on getting the nest boxes for Tree Swallows and Violet-green Swallows finished and installed at the Beaver Creek Natural Area.  Jim is still out of state, but helping to coordinate the project with State Parks.

Wally with one of  the 17 swallow boxes we put in.  Swallows immediately started landing on them and inspecting them - yeah!  Notice the 2 smaller holes on each side of the entry hole. These are for the babies to stick their mouths out for food, as usually one baby will stay  in the entry hole and hog all the food.  Now the others will have a better chance of getting enough.

There is a swallow perched on top of the pole and others flying around like bats.  A pair of Tree Swallows will eat about 300,000 flying insects during their 45 day nesting period, and about 40% of those will be flies. They deserve handcrafted cedar homes for that!

A pan of the area next to the Beaver Creek Welcome Center where we have replaced old boxes and installed new ones, as well as adding more.  We also put up a chickadee box near a feeder that had many Chestnut-backed Chickadees going to it.

Our next step is to install predator guards on all the poles to keep out raccoons, squirrels, and cats.  Also, we have a great tip on a location for another screech owl box.  Lastly, we still plan to put up an apartment complex for Purple Martins and hopefully start a colony.