My boss this morning told me that one of the Barn
Swallows in the nearby (Bethesda NIH campus) parking
garage appeared to be sick under the nest of last year
and that the mate was sitting nearby.  A pair of BS
raised two broods at the same nest site last year.  I
went down and found that the sick bird was, in fact,
dead.  The mate was still sitting near, but flew when
I approached.  I picked up the dead bird which seemed
to have been dead for some hours reasoning that the
mate would stop grieving and begin the process of
finding a new mate.    Was this the right thing to do?
 

Jim (Michael) Speicher
jugornought—at—yahoo-dot-com
Bethesda @work :(
Broad Run_S. FRED Co @home :)