A ranger was telling us recently about finding dead birds on the side of the road that had clearly been killed by a passing car. Often he found the mate very nearby. He always removed the dead bird to get the beleaguered mate to move away from danger. In this case, it's unclear whether the Barn Swallow might be in danger of being flattened by a car but it's probably best that you removed the dead bird.
People tend to anthropomophize and say that animals have feelings or emotions and other say they don't. When you see something like this, it makes me feel that they really do.
 
Tyler Bell

California, Maryland



----- Original Message ----
From: MICHAEL SPEICHER <>
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:44:50 AM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Barn Swallow mate death

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 :)