Wildsight Golden is looking for volunteers to help with the Upper Columbia Swallow Habitat Enhancement Project.
The project is sustained through contributions from volunteers who observe swallows, record their observations and collectively work towards swallow conservation in the Columbia Valley.
Currently, the project needs volunteers who can assist with monitoring three types of swallows.
From May until September, volunteers will monitor barn swallows and cliff swallows. In June and July, volunteers are needed to monitor bank swallows.
Anyone interested in volunteering for the project is encouraged to contact Rachel Darvill, the project biologist, by emailing her at swallows@wildsight.ca.
This year, the habitat enhancement project will focus on banding 50 bank swallows to track their movement throughout the Columbia Valley.
Banding is the practice of placing a small band around the leg of an individual bird to track its movement.
With origins in the early 1800s banding is one of the oldest – and most important – techniques used to study birds.
The bank swallows that will be banded by Wildsight will be tracked through the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an international collaborative research network that is supported by the federal government.
Wildsight conservationists hope that their efforts will help track the movements of bank swallows throughout their breeding cycle and will be able to identify any unknown migration routes and winter areas.
Once these locations become identified, the goal will then become to take steps to conserve the birds’ habitat in these areas.
The organization is also building a large artificial nesting structure for barn swallows to provide the birds with easy access to a breeding site.
The structures also make it easy to observe and monitor the swallows’ habits throughout the summer.
The structures are erected on private properties throughout the Columbia Valley and Wildisght is currently looking for new landowners to become involved in the project.
The conservation effort has many components and “would not be possible without citizen-scientists, our partners or our major funders,” Wildsight wrote in a press release.
Contribution to the project is not limited to volunteer efforts and financial support is welcome.
Anyone looking to donate to the project can find more information online at the Upper Columbia Swallow Habitat Enhancement Project’s website.
