Category: Articles

08 OCT

Behind the garden gate


Athlone Advertiser, Ireland – Oct 4, 2007
While discussing her garden with a client lately I got distracted when I spotted a swallows nest immediately outside her patio doors, resting between the house and the down pipe. This nest was the hive of activity with mammy swallow feeding her young and directing traffic as the young birds flew in and out of their house. It looked like any home full of active teenagers.
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05 OCT

Studying the mystery of migration


Cyprus Mail, Cyprus – Sep 30, 2007
By Jane Stylianou

The amazing movement of birds around the globe has fascinated people for centuries

BIRD MIGRATION has fascinated people for centuries. No humans can equal the movements of some birds on migration. For example, no human population moves each year as far as the Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) which breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Antarctic, travelling between the poles twice a year.
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28 SEP

Nest architecture and avian systematics


Auk, The,  Oct 1999  by Sheldon, Frederick H,  Winkler, David W

ANYONE WHO TRIES to identify a bird nest, without seeing the bird that constructed it, enters the realm of avian systematics. The attempt to determine the identity of the nest leads immediately to an effort to categorize the nest according to its overt features: Is it in a hole? Is it on a branch? If the nest lies in a hole: Where is the hole located? How big is it? How was the hole constructed? For the nest itself: What material is it made of? How is the material fitted together? How is the nest lined?
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26 SEP

Barn Swallows: Recognizing and Attracting These Graceful Birds


www.associatedcontent.com
The barn swallow, or Hirundo rustica, is an amazing bird to watch. These little birds travel a long distance in their six to eight years of life. These birds are found all over the world, except for Australia. The interesting thing about barn swallows is that they nest in large colonies. If you live near an open field or on the countryside, chances are you can easily attract these amazing birds. We have barn swallows that nest on our front porch every year. Watching these birds is a true delight.
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25 SEP

Kevin Myers: Buzzards are a novelty, and no threat to swallows, but the magpie had it coming


Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom – Sep 14, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007

Following this most accursed of summers, with the hay slain by the rain and lying in the muddy fields like lines of infantry on the Somme, the strangest things have been happening to our birdlife. Buzzards do not naturally live in this part of Leinster.
Read more about Kevin Myers: Buzzards are a novelty, and no threat to swallows, but the magpie had it coming …