I was tickled to hear Tim & Laura Dornan had visited the Pickaway County spot I described yesterday, and seen as many bank swallows last week as we saw yesterday--8-10K. They observed a larger proportion of swallows on the pavement itself; these birds spilled out over the fields along with those on the utility wires. We noticed smaller numbers of birds on the pavement too, but didn't mention it, nor did we pay adequate attention. The Dornans noticed that about half of the total number of swallows were on the road (far more than we'd seen), but also that half of the birds on the road were *lying on their sides* before they took off! Wow. My first reaction was to think that these burrowing colonial birds might be plagued by parasites, and that on a hot sunny day they were able to "cook" these organisms by lying on blacktop on a 95-degree day, something that could do a lot to get them ready for their long migration to South America. The Dornans agreed with this in principle, interestingly adding that a blacktop road on a hot day exhales lots of petrochemical vapors that would do a job on parasitic organisms. I haven't read about this possibility anywhere, but would be interested to know if it makes sense. Our swallows have proved to be pretty adaptable to our changes to the landscape. Rough-wingeds have nested in drains often, even niches in buildings and exhaust pipes of vehicles left standing for even a few days. Cliff swallows have become 'bridge swallows,' and now occupy every bridge along the Scioto between here and the Ohio River. Martins apparently no longer nest at all if humans don't provide perfect sites. If anyone knows of some published material on bank swallows using overheated blacktop roads to kill parasites--or another explanation for this behavior--it would be interesting to hear more. These birds might be around for a few more days if anyone wants to witness the spectacle, and provide more information. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]