A Hopeful Sign

A relatively uncrowded bit of wire

Working on the Farm Side for this week, on the recent report on the massive decline in bird populations since I graduated from high school.

It's pretty awful with a third of our birds gone since then. Agriculture was blamed by some conservation groups. However, I feel that farmers do a lot to preserve birds and other wildlife, often without even meaning to. 

After all, where are you more likely to find a Snowy Owl wintering successfully so far south of their native range? The ones that spent the last two winters in our county lived on large farms with big fields. They seemed untroubled by farm activity, with one hunting most evenings a few yards from barns full of hundreds of cows and calves.

Upland Sandpipers breeding here? 

On farms. There is a well-known breeding population right here in Montgomery County just a few miles west of here.

Barn Swallows? You need only check out their name. 

The list of birds breeding or stopping along the migration route on farms is long indeed. I have counted over a hundred species on our little farm alone.

Sunday the boss and I were out on our usual peregrinations in search of Peregrines and such. 

What we found....one of the things we found anyhow....is illustrated in these photos.

As far as I can tell they are all Tree Swallows. A lot of Tree Swallows. In some spots there were a dozen crowded into just over a foot of wire. They covered a lot of wire.

It's for sure that they were all resting and refueling on their way south on two separate farms out in the Town of Root in our home county. Not scurrying for popcorn on a city street. Not snooping around in the bushes in a city park.



Nope, they were hunting bugs and sunning themselves chittering all the while...on farms.

I found the presence of the largest flock of them that I have ever seen to be.....hopeful..