This morning as I was preparing to drive out of the parking lot at the Upper Valley Land Trust's Brookmead Conservation Area on Turnpike Road in Norwich, I noticed a swallow flying up under the eves by the pinnacle of the nearest barn on the abutting property of Norwich Farms. At ground level well below the nest but offset to the right on the same wall of the barn is the entrance door for the store of the Norwich Farm Creamery. Watching with binoculars revealed that adult Cliff Swallows were making repeated trips to and from a mud nest plastered against the barn wall and that the adults were moving around while inside the nest. The observed behavior was what might be expected if birds were in the process of nest building. Barn Swallows are also likely be nesting in the same barn as one was seen flying to enter the barn through a large opening on the side away from Turnpike Road.

Cliff Swallows have in recent years seemed somewhat erratic in their nesting locations in Norwich where the only nesting sites known to me have been in the vicinity of the Ompompanoosuc River. In some years Cliff Swallows nested underneath the I-91 northbound overpass crossing the river and Route 132. Those nests, suspended directly below the decking of that interstate highway, would appear to have been in a very noisy location for incubating eggs and rearing offspring. Other known Norwich locations for nesting Cliff Swallows have been under the eves of barns near that river. This latest nesting site on Turnpike Road is a few miles cross country from the Ompompanoosuc sites but would appear to have the necessary ingredients to appeal to Cliff Swallows, namely extensive open meadows with a couple of ponds and a stream in the vicinity. Presumably, the essential mud for nest building would also be readily available at the Turnpike Road site.

George Clark
Norwich, VT


To post messages, send e-mail to:  [log in to unmask]
Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages.
To contact the list owner:  [log in to unmask]
To unsubscribe:  E-mail this command to [log in to unmask]  UNSUBSCRIBE UV-Birders
To change your e-mail address:  E-mail this command from your old address to: [log in to unmask]  CHANGE UV-Birders [new e-mail address]

Web based archives and subscription management are available at:
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html