Clearview Township public works yard is for the birds

A colony of bank swallows has made condominiums out of a pile of topsoil at the Clearview Township public works yard near Stayner.

The birds have made holes, perhaps hundreds of holes, in a large deposit of soil.

The bank swallow is considered a threatened species in Ontario.

Their territories usually include vertical cliffs or banks where they nest in colonies of 10 to 2,000 nests, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Bank Swallows were most commonly found around natural bluffs or eroding streamside banks, more and more often these swallows populate human-made sites, such as sand and gravel quarries or road cuts.

The swallows set up residence in the spring and are now nesting. It is expected they will vacate the soil mound by September or October.

Roads crews are waiting until the chicks have fledged before they use the topsoil.

The swallows have been at the yard for the past few years. Just recently, the Ontario Field Ornithologists gave Clearview Township roads manager Tony Clarke a certificate of appreciation for protecting a sand pile in which bank swallows were nesting in 2014.

The organization said, “This is a prime example of our ability to help species at risk.”