I've had a TRES here since Saturday the 17th, in Central WI. Monday there were two but now we are back to one again. It isn't doing much house hunting yet, just hanging around. Will be the first year the Blues (that are house hunting already) will get their choice of nestboxes cause normally the TRES are here first. Lisa, I am messing with two friggin male HOSP, got one with the BB gun yesterday but I missed the other one this morning, feathers flew but he flew away just fine. Have the vanert set for him now as he was in a box just a bit ago. Ugh! Donna

Tree Swallows do not eat seed or crumbs. They don't eat anything off the ground at all. They eat on the wing only...which is why when there are prolonged periods of rain (3+ days) they will either leave or die and their nestlings will die...they simply don't eat anything off the ground. Can you describe the birds exactly. The only time I have seen Tree Swallows on the ground was when they are nestbuilding and are picking up grasses.

When I lived in the Northwest Territories it was really hit and miss for a successful nesting season for tree swallows. If cold, rainy weather persisted for a few days, the birds would abandon their nests to forage further afield for insects. This could happen any time during the season and it was often a little heart wrenching to clean out the nest box in the fall and find five beautifully fledged out young, all dead. The parents were forced to abandon them in search of food. As for their fascination with the chickadee house I cannot offer any explanations or advice. Who knows what goes on in the brains of birds?

If at all possible, I will try to get a video. He was on top of the nest box just outside my kitchen window and facing the main tomato garden. Wrens are great for keeping tomato plants bug-free. He's hopping up and down on top of the box. Sometimes with both feet, sometimes on first the left foot - hop, hop, hop - and then the right foot - hop, hop, hop. Sometimes his hops take him up a couple inches; sometimes a foot or more. He has both wings dropped down with his head bobbing. Then holds first one wing and then the other out at various angles and contortions...all the while doing the multi-footed polka, and singing his fool heart out the entire time. He flies straight up a couple feet and then zig-zags back down to the nest box top. Again, singing that fool heart out. I expected him to have a major coronary at any second. She looked at him; she looked in the box, (a very fine Coveside chickadee box, with slate squirrel guard, by the way) did the birdy version of an eye roll, and zoomed off. Her mama raised her better than to hang out with that sort of boy. But then...good girls and bad boys...we know how that story plays out at times!