Abrupt climate changes can be a real challenge to some forms of wildlife, as illustrated by the story of this Tree Swallow. I banded this swallow as a nestling on 6/5/23 in a nest box in a colony of 55 boxes in the Town of Rotterdam, a suburb of Schenectady, NY. I have monitored these boxes for over 20 years, banding primarily Tree Swallows, Eastern Bluebirds and House Wrens. Just recently, the Bird Banding Lab notified me that this bird had been captured "due to an injury" on 1/22/25 at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, McIntosh Co., GA, coastally located just south of Savannah. Email correspondence with the reporter of the band proved quite revealing. When the bird was found, its feet were frozen to a stick stuck in the snow, wings iced over; obviously unable to fly though still alive. It was thawed out, kept inside, but did not survive the night either due too hypothermia or starvation...or both. According to Alanna Thompson, the person finding and reporting the band, "we never get snow in Georgia but recently just got a record breaking amount." What an ill omen as testified to by this Tree Swallow. Bob Yunick Schenectady, NY --
(copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
