MDOT exits site when birds nest

DetNews.com, MI – Aug 20, 2014
What do you do when you’re the Michigan Department of Transportation and Mother Nature decides to set up a nursery in the middle of a construction project?
You tip-toe away quietly and let nature take its course. That is exactly what happened near Kalamazoo recently when a covey of bank swallows built nests in a work zone, as MDOT was widening Interstate 94.

“Bank swallows are pretty opportunistic; over the weekend they found the site and started excavating cavities on both sides of the road,” said MDOT wildlife expert Robert Wolinski. “The nests were noticed a few days later. I inspected the site and determined that the birds had laid eggs.”
Wolinski ordered the contractor to stop work in that immediate area.
“Once we have birds on incubating eggs we had to stop work in that vicinity because it might harm the birds, their nests or young,” Wolinski said.
“Vibrations from heavy equipment could cause the banks to collapse and cover the nests.”
The birds flew the coop Aug. 13, and the roadwork resumed.
According to Wolinski, bank swallows — which are not on the endangered species list — are pretty tough little cookies.
“They’re the smallest of all the member of the swallow family here in Michigan,” Wolinski said.
“They migrate to Central and South America and can even be found at the very southern tip of South America. They are small, but tough.”
MDOT had a similar situation with bank swallows on a project on M-59 in Howell, but workers were able to head the birds off before they started their nests.