Swallows, a sure sign of spring, have returned

Published 11:00 pm Thursday, March 19, 2009

LAKE STEVENS — Spring is near.

That thought popped up in Grant Barrie’s mind when a couple of swallows caught his eye earlier this month.

Barrie, who is about to retire, has been watching swallows throughout his life. He works in Lake Stevens, though he lives in Kirkland.

“I’ve watched them since I was a youngster… It’s part of nature,” he said.

Many people associate the arrival and departure of these small birds with the changing of the seasons, said Mike Blackbird, president of the Pilchuck Audubon Society. “It’s always kind of uplifting when you realize the swallows are back,” he said. “They’re kind of like crocuses; it’s a harbinger of spring.”

Swallows winter in Panama and usually begin to come back to Washington state in March, Blackbird said. Birds from the East Coast wing their way to Puerto Rico. The same birds or their offspring usually return to nest in the same place, Blackbird said.

“My family puts up birdhouses in Lake Stevens for them to nest and have babies,” Barrie said. “Each period of their life is a little different: They arrive, they nest, hatch babies, then they are gone. It’s life.”

Barrie spotted three different kinds of swallows in his area. The tree swallow has a bluish-green back and a white breast. The violet green, has a white patch on the back of each wing, “You can see white patches behind the wings when they are coming away from you,” Barrie said.

And the barn swallow has a long, elegant forked tail.

Barrie likes to let his eyes rest on these birds, flying 200 to 300 feet in the air. “Their agility, it’s like watching a dolphin,” he said.

According to the legend of San Juan Capistrano, a California mission, thousands of swallows each year make their way back to rebuild their nests there on the exact same date, March 19.

March 19 — Barrie’s dad’s birthday — used to be the day the birds first showed up around his father’s Lake Stevens home, Barrie said.

His father died in 1994, and swallows have been coming a few weeks early ever since, he said.

Some people attribute the migrational shift to climate change, but there are no real trends to show when exactly swallows come back to the area, Blackbird said.

One way people can keep track of spring birds returning from the south is through a Web-based bird hotline called The Tweeters List, said Susie Schaefer, vice president of the Pilchuck Audubon Society. People from across the state ask questions and post bird sightings at tinyurl.com/ckns25.

There are many good places in the county to watch swallows, Schaefer said. They include Jennings Park in Marysville, Lowell Riverfront Park in Everett, Portage Creek Wildlife area near Arlington, Spencer Island and Langus Riverfront Park in Everett.

Although excited birders have spotted a few spring birds here and there, spring isn’t really here until hummingbirds are, Schaefer said. “They will be here soon: My red flowering currants are opening up.”

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.