Kota Kinabalu is a fairly new and modern city and things are just too shiny and fast paced to attract many pacific swallows. Liz and I have learned enough in our search for swallows thus far to not waste our time tracking down the few pairs that we would find in KK. So we rented a car and headed north towards to the tip of Borneo (sounds so adventurous right?). Time for a road trip! Liz is now a pro at driving on the left side of the road and maneuvering around cows.
On our route we stopped in a few small towns and found some nests near the open-air markets, but not at the densities we had seen at Bako or the longhouse. Some daytime netting in a bridge with two nests over a river offered no success. With limited prospects, we kept heading north until we were in the town of Koto Marudu. I am guessing that you have not heard of it- probably because there is not much there and even less to draw tourists. In the concrete buildings around the central market we found 12 nests, only some of which appeared active. It seemed the best we could do, so we booked a tiny windowless room in one of the local hotels and waited for night to fall. If we had some luck, we could maybe catch 10 birds here, which was the minimum number we were hoping for. As we sipped our iced milo after dinner, we discussed how we might have to just take our time and hope for a few birds a night in each of the towns to get close to 15. With only a few days before we had to meet our collaborators on the other side of Sabah, it was going to take some work.
The night started off dismally. To begin with, three birds escaped the nets- their nests were in hard to reach corners or near pipes and putting the nets up was tricky. Other nests had only big chicks waiting for us and no parents, several were just empty. With three birds in hand and one more nest to check, it was not looking good. It was nearing 11pm and both of us were pretty grumpy. We were about a block away from our hotel when some movement caught my eye, two swallows flew through the light cast by a street light. Had we missed a nest? I thought we had checked this block. Then I took in the side of the building where they had come from. There were birds everywhere. For a minute, I was just confused, and then I realized that they were all swallows! There were hundreds of swallows roosting on windows and ledges, on balconies. The powerlines that crossed the street drooped because they held swallows like beads on a necklace, sitting wing to wing.
For several minutes Liz and I alternated between a series of questions that no one answered- “What?! Why are they here? Why are there so many? When did they get here? Why did we not see them on our way to dinner? What!? This is crazy!” and giggling. The whole thing seemed slightly ridiculous and very dreamlike. They were not all pacific swallows, a large part of the roosting flock were barn swallows, migrating up from their wintering grounds to northern Asia where they will breed. Both Liz and I have studied barn swallows for years so we recognized them right away. They looked huge next to the tiny pacific swallows. It was like running into an old friend in an unexpected place. But in all my years of research, I have never seen so many barn swallows in one place. It was incredible.
On the edges of the roosting flock were pacific swallows, dozens and dozens of them. All we had to do was lift up a short net and we could catch ten birds at once. Having earned every bird we have caught so far on the trip with hard work, it felt a little like cheating.
On the edges of the roosting flock were pacific swallows, dozens and dozens of them. All we had to do was lift up a short net and we could catch ten birds at once. Having earned every bird we have caught so far on the trip with hard work, it felt a little like cheating.
We alternated between catching birds and taking them back to the hotel room to band, measure, and release them. With the help of some chocolate, we caught and measured all 20 birds, which is the maximum number we can catch in each location. It was 5am when everything was finished and we still could not quite believe it. Does this happen often, or was it just luck that we went to the right town on the right night and stayed in the right hotel to stumble upon a flock of hundreds of swallows? When we woke up the next morning after 4 hours of sleep, all of them were gone. Other than the samples we had in our packs, it was as if they had never been there.