Birds at Dunawi Creek and community garden

[lisa...@peak.org]

While working at the community garden at Starker Park today, I came across a newly-plowed area of the community garden with a swarm of VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS collecting nesting material from the ground.  At first I thought they were collecting bits of dead grass, but then I noticed that they were concentrating on a small, feathered lump lying in the dirt.  I was saddened to see that it was the severed head and neck of a female Mallard hybrid from the duck pond. I don't know what happened.  Anyway, the swallows' behavior made me think of tiny vultures, squabbling and tugging at feathers on the carcass for nest lining material.

We've been watching a RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD pair who now have nestlings being fed continuously by their mother.  She had a beakful of food for them today which included an adult damselfly and a damselfly naiad, among other insects.  A COOPER'S HAWK flew low over the garden and almost caught a EUROPEAN STARLING carrying food for its babies.   

Lisa Millbank
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com