Other folks, who have forgotten more than I will ever know about
raptors, have wondered aloud what would prevent every little Ohio town
with a church steeple or a window ledge on a tall building having a pair
of peregrine falcons. Kenn accurately describes the havoc peregrines,
showing up at new times of the year, cause among flocks of migrating
shorebirds here. Others have pointed out the depredations their
unprecedented new nesting populations have caused among scarce
short-eared owls and endangered piping plovers along the Atlantic coast,
in places where indigenous peregrines are not known to have nested
before. I have posted diatribes about introduced falcons and their
effects on native birds on this forum before; I can send copies to
anyone interested, but will not repeat them now. Suffice it to say the
peregrine introduction projects have had some unanticipated and very
unfortunate side-effects.
        One thought I've had about the shifts in nesting sites for swifts and
swallows over the past century or more is that we humans now remove dead
trees from the landscape. They are regarded as untidy and a sign of
neglect, as widow-makers and eyesores. Yet in a state of nature they
were a prominent part of the natural scene, for all the species Kenn
mentions. See Audubon's account of the swift at
http://www.audubon.org/bird/boa/boa_index.html . Trautman in his "Birds
of Western Lake Erie" mentions having seen them nesting in large
sycamores, as Audubon had, "in at least four years since 1922."  I
haven't heard of any natural purple martin nests here since the early
1900s--has anyone else? Cliff swallows seem to be adapting more often: a
hundred years ago they were called "eave swallows," and nested
underneath eaves of barns, while barn swallows occupied the inside. For
many subsequent decades they were rare outside areas, such as in Amish
country, where traditional barns were present, but in recent decades
their populations have exploded as they've adapted to bridges. I have
seen over a thousand nests on the Rte 2 bridge south of Huron, and they
probably have occupied every bridge on the Scioto River from Columbus to
Portsmouth since then. I guess the big question is what happens to
species that have adapted to temporary artificial nest sites, like
chimneys, or wooden barns, or martin boxes. Will they adapt and find new
sites as we humans eliminate these sites? History proves that some
species do, and some don't. Naturally, we humans feel at fault when our
changes to the landscape are to blame. The question is how far we will
stretch the adaptability of these bird species that have become
dependent on our inadvertent assistance.
Bill Whan

Kenn Kaufman wrote:
> I agree with Bill Whan that it would be a fine thing to see more actual
> discussion on Ohio-birds, and I have no idea why such discussion doesn't
> take place.  A few times I have posted things that I hoped would spark some
> discussion, and in those cases I have usually gotten some private responses
> but often no public responses on the listserve.  Seems a little odd.
>
> Regarding the Peregrine introductions to urban sites, in areas where they
> had not been known to nest historically -- I am uneasy about that practice.
> Sure, we all love Peregrines and love to see them, and a few isolated pairs
> out of place probably don't have too much impact on the ecosystem, but
> still
> ... A couple of years ago I was going out repeatedly to the "sky ponds"
> east-southeast of Fremont during mid to late summer, when that area had big
> numbers of shorebirds.  It seemed that every time I focused on a big
> shorebird concentration, a Peregrine would make a pass and flush all the
> birds.  Historically it would have been exceptionally rare for a Peregrine
> to be around this area in early August, but now the urban birds from
> downtown Toledo probably make the rounds of all the shorebird spots in n.w.
> Ohio every day during peak season, repeatedly flushing the birds and adding
> one more bit of stress to populations that are already facing a variety of
> challenges.
>
> Regarding birds that are shifting, or have shifted, to nesting on manmade
> structures:  I've always been fascinated by this phenomenon.  Chimney Swift
> is a prime example: their propensity for nesting in chimneys was already
> well established two centuries ago.  Purple Martin is a bird that goes both
> ways:  populations in eastern North America practically all nest in houses
> put up for them, but in the Southwest they still nest commonly in natural
> cavities.  Barn Swallow is another bird that has adapted to our structures
> in a big way.  In years of birding around North America I had seen Barn
> Swallow nests in barns, of course, and on porches, in sheds, under bridges,
> in culverts, etc., but until a couple of years ago I'd never seen a Barn
> Swallow nest in anything that could be considered a "natural" site.  When I
> got to visit West Sister Island out in Lake Erie, I was impressed by a lot
> of things about this federally-designated wilderness area (the only one in
> Ohio?), but one of the impressive small things was the presence of Barn
> Swallows nesting on the cliffs on the east side of the island.  The cliffs
> have enough of an overhang that the nest sites appear to be protected from
> the elements.  It seemed like a hint of the kinds of situations the
> swallows
> would have used before we so thoughtfully provided all these structures for
> them.
>
> I would be interested to know: Has anyone found Barn Swallows nesting in
> truly natural situations elsewhere in Ohio?  What about Purple Martin or
> Chimney Swift?
>
> Kenn Kaufman
> Oak Harbor, Ohio

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