Nesting structure for northern rough-winged swallows

Details Nesting structure for northern rough-winged swallows Nesting structure for northern rough-winged swallows

2001-05-10

2003-03-11

Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3643)

Animal husbandry

Bird nest or nest appliance

Reexamination Certificate

active

06530344

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to nesting structures for wild birds and more particularly to an externally wall-mounted, laterally disposed elongated nesting structure acceptable to, selective for and protective of northern rough-winged swallows, which formerly have been known to commonly nest only in cavities within earthen cliffs, banks, excavations and piles, or in cavities within retaining walls, bridge foundations and building walls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Northern rough-winged swallows once nested only in natural settings, such as in the upright earthen banks of rivers, lakes, oceans, or eroded earthen cliffs. These upright banks or cliffs are inaccessible to some, but not all, predators. In such natural settings these swallows burrow directly into the broad, upright earthen face and deep into the earth behind the exposed face. Though such burrows may be irregular where stones and roots redirect the digging, they are generally substantially horizontal from front to back and generally perpendicular to any substantially planar surface around the burrow entrance.
In such natural settings rough-winged swallows build their grassy, leafy nests at the back ends of such long burrows, a safe distance away from whatever weather and predators might be at, or outside, the bank face.
In natural settings, rough-winged swallows will also nest in burrows previously dug by bank swallows and kingfishers, again placing their nests deep within the earth and away from the exposed upright bank face.
In semi-natural settings, rough-winged swallows nest in burrows dug into upright faces created by earth-moving equipment in road cuttings, excavations and earthen piles and even sawdust piles, here yet again placing their nests deep within the earth or deep within the mass of piled particulate material and well away from the exposed upright face.
Northern rough-winged swallows have commonly nested in artificial settings where exterior upright artificial surfaces such as vertical retaining walls, bridge foundations and building walls simulate the broad, upright natural bank or cliff faces described above, and cavities through and behind these exterior upright surfaces simulate their nesting burrows.
A common artificial nesting setting for northern rough-winged swallows is within small diameter drain pipes set low in concrete retaining walls or bridge foundations along rivers or other bodies of water. Such pipes are substantially perpendicular to the planar exterior surface of the retaining wall but are often inclined slightly to drain water from the earth behind the wall, through the length of pipe and out through the exterior face. Rough-winged swallows, entering through the hole in the retaining wall exterior face, travel through the length of the drain pipe and typically build their nest at the interior end of the pipe, well beyond the plane of the exterior upright wall face.
Nests in the earth or in pipe buried in the earth behind a concrete or other permanent retaining wall are practically inaccessible to humans interested in research or breeding management such as trapping alien birds which usurp nests or controlling parasites which infest such nests.
Nests in retaining wall or bridge foundation drainage pipes are often destroyed in the breeding season when heavy spring rains raise rivers and streams above the level of these low-lying drainage pipes. Even normal rainfall, after draining through the earth behind retaining walls, will dampen nests as water trickles out through such drainage pipes.
Other less common artificial nesting settings are within deep crevices in stone retaining walls and within cavities behind and enterable through small openings in exterior building walls. Nests in these settings, being situated behind the exterior surfaces of such walls, are also inaccessible to humans interested in research or breeding management.
Stone walls so loosely built or buildings so dilapidated as to offer deep cavities to swallows also enable predators, such as rats, to travel within the walls to access the nests.
It is impractical to create nesting sites for rough-winged swallows in existent masonry retaining walls as one would have to drill through such walls and the nests would still be inaccessible to those interested in research or breeding management.
Finally, rough-winged swallows are not known to accept conventional bird houses.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, in general, an object of the present invention to provide an artificial, man-made nesting structure which is mountable on the exterior exposed surface of an artificial wall, is configured to blend in with the surface of the wall to attract the attention of northern rough-winged swallows without attracting avian competitors or human vandals, is adjustably mountable to protect a nesting from flood waters or avian competitors, is passively protective of the nesting, permits convenient internal access for non-disruptive, protective, active human management and research of the occupied enclosed nest, and is economical to create and maintain for annual reuse, as specified in the further objects stated below.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a nesting cavity highly acceptable to northern rough-winged swallows, a species not known to commonly accept bird houses.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a self-contained nesting structure which may be externally mounted on the exposed face of a retaining wall or bridge foundation.
It is a still further object of the present invention that this externally wall-mounted structure contain a nesting chamber for northern rough-winged swallows, a species previously known to commonly nest only behind the exposed planar face or exposed broad surface of formations such as retaining walls or upright earthen banks.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an elongated and substantially horizontal nesting cavity parallel to, and outside of, the wall face rather than perpendicular to, and behind, the wall face, yet still satisfying the instinct of these swallows to build nests distant from the cavity entrance.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a rough-winged swallow nesting structure accessibly locatable external to the face of a retaining wall or bridge foundation, and thus permitting convenient, non-disruptive access to the nesting cavity through an easily removable and replaceable nest access door, to allow research and active human management of the nesting cavity such as trapping of destructive competitors or removal of parasites and old nests.
It is a still further object of the present invention that this externally wall-mounted structure will appear to blend in with the wall on which it is mounted, so that it might be misperceived by rough-winged swallows to be part of that wall, and so that the nesting cavity formed within the present invention might be misperceived by such swallows to be formed within the wall on which the structure is mounted.
It is yet a further object of the present invention that the shape of the nesting structure also might cause vandals to ignore the nesting structure when misperceiving it as part of the wall on which it is mounted.
It is a further object of the present invention that the shape of the nesting structure will discourage predators from resting upon it or entering it.
It is a further object of the present invention that the entrance in relation to the shape of the nesting structure will be noticeable and accessible to low-flying swallows, and less noticeable and less accessible to high-flying birds of other competing species.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a wall-mounted rough-winged swallow nesting structure which, unlike fixed retaining wall drainage pipes, may be ideally mounted above river flood waters yet close to such waters to favor swallows over other species which fly higher when over water.
It is a yet further object of the present invention

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