Bank Swallows and Their Colony of Nests

We had been fishing in the Oakville Bottoms. That's in southeast Iowa. We were talking and having a nice time driving and taking in the surroundings. The Oakville "Bottoms" is low lying farm ground that sets between the Iowa and Mississippi Rivers. The town of Oakville was nearly wiped away in the last flood of 2008. All of the farm ground was under water then. How does this relate to Bank Swallows?

After the flood, farmers had to have bulldozers and blades go in their fields and scrape away the sand left by the flood waters. As you drive by various fields, you will see large hills of sand that has been taken from the top of the farm ground. These large mounds have sat there for a couple of years now and grass and weeds cover the top of them.

As we were driving, I was glancing at one of these large sand hills and I thought I saw several small holes in the side. A bit of falling sand had caught my eye. I made us turn around just so I could take another look at what I had seen. There in the bare side of the sand hill were hundreds of holes! We pulled in a driveway to the field and just sat there taking it all in.

Hundreds of tiny holes were in the side of the sand hill. You could see sand spilling out of some of the holes. Little birds called Bank Swallows were literally burrowing out holes to make a nest. It was such an awesome sight.

There were many Bank Swallows in the air, presumably "hunting". Bank swallows feed on insects. As a matter of fact over 90% of their diet is insects. Bank swallows are called "aerial foragers" because they catch their insects in flight most of the time.

Some snakes, herons, egrets etc. are predators of these small, delightful birds. Man can also be harmful to the Barn Swallows. Their nests are in a precarious place and sand and dirt can collapse from people jarring over the top of the hills and banks where they build.

The Bank Swallow is a delight to watch as it swoops in the air like the other 70+ swallow species. They are graceful and they are also a song bird. To learn more about Bank Swallows go here. There are 3 pictures of the Bank Swallow colony that we saw. Just click on them and be amazed!