Attracting her to your yard

In season, it is not unusual to see a tree swallow perched on a wire or on the clothesline, taking a moment to catch her breath.

TO ATTRACT HER TO YOUR YARD...

Nothing could be simpler: you must first offer her a nest box, that is the first rule. Of all the swallow species that nest in Quebec, she is the only one, along with the purple martin, that nests in a cavity provided for her. But there is more: certain basic criteria must be met when building the nest box.

To avoid certain mistakes that are made all too often, we offer a few tips that will no doubt help attract the first swallows to your yard.

Unfortunately for the swallow enthusiast, there will always be our friends the house sparrows to outwit. Beware! These birds are very clever at slipping into the boxes, most of the time without our knowing it.

How many times a day have you frightened the house sparrows off without ever discouraging them?

You may pull their nests apart, but they are rebuilt right away. Hundreds of swallow enthusiasts have come up with tricks to keep house sparrows out of the nest boxes; we watch over the little houses from first light without discouraging the sparrows from coming back. They are back as soon as our head is turned.

So what did we do? HIRONBEC, in turn, tried its luck by developing a device that keeps house sparrows out of the nest boxes. We named it the sparrow-proof pendulum .

Since 1993, the year of its invention, hundreds and hundreds of enthusiasts in Quebec have fitted it to their nest boxes.

Over the past ten months, we have received requests from several Canadian provinces, among them Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. For some time now, Americans have been taking a serious interest in it. Many of them have asked for the sparrow-proof pendulum. The letters we exchange come from more than 40 states. That says a great deal about how much house sparrows haunt tree swallow enthusiasts.