Bird Nests in Niagara

NN6806 Earl Plato

Have you ever thought about the many kinds of nests that our birds build? This first article is about some of them I have seen over the years. I think that you will recognize most of my descriptions. 1. Daughter Allison and I were on the Lower Trail at Marcy Woods when we came upon a small cup-like nest. It was finely made with grasses with what looked like milk weed fibres woven in. It was only about 6 centimetres across and it was wedged in the fork of a spicebush. Goldfinch home? We think so. 2. At our Sherkston family farm years ago we had barn swallows. With great engineering skill barn swallows cemented their nests on the vertical face of the upper inside of the barn. We are told both sexes gather mud pellets and straw to build sem-circular cup-shaped nests. I measured one that had fallen in tact and it was about 12 centometres across. The walls of the fallen nest was about 5 centimetres thick- sturdy. This nest was lined with soft material. We had a colony of ten or more with at least five nests. 3. These nests have a sad ending. The Cliff swallow will dig nests deep into a sandbank. On the west side of Point Abino while with the late Bert Miller and my Grade Eight class circa 1970 we saw thirty or more Bank swallows flying straight into their sandbank nests. Amazing! Bert said that their burrows were quite deep. He said that they round out a smaller nest deep inside the excavation which they line with straw, grass and feathers. My zoom camcorder recorded that day of frenzy activity. Two weeks later we returned after a torrential downpour and we found no nests. They had been destroyed along with several feet of the sandbank. Sad but a need to start over. 4. Our Bert Miller Nature Club’s logo was designed by Bob Chambers and it portrays Point Abino and the giant Pileated woodpecker. Through out Marcy Woods there are many standing dead trees or snags as they are called. This woodpecker loves old beech trees with its gray bark. Look for holes in these beeches and yellow birches. They are usually on the south or east sides. Most of the ones in Marcy Woods are on the south side. They are roughly some 30-40 feet (14 metres) above the ground. There is an oval or triangular hole about eight centimetres wide. The material for the nest inside I don’t know. You can see one on the Lower Trail in an old yellow birch . These nests are often reused by other cavity-nesting birds such as screech owls and saw-whet owls. Yes, the Pileated woodpeckers are still nesting in Marcy Woods. .