Montreal swallows

Every spring millions of swallows return to our area and stay until the first days of September, when they darken the skies between the Champlain and the Mercier bridges, getting together for their return to South America. But Patrick Asch of Héritage Laurentien says that in spite of the furious flapping, the local population of the insect-munching birds that can fly 50 kilometres an hour is likely in free fall. “Birdwatchers and other groups say the swallows are decreasing,” says Asch. “Lakes around Quebec that used to have a nest on every cottage will now have a single swallow nest on one cottage around the lake. It’s not quite known why.”

Asch says the apparent decline of swallows can’t be linked to any major loss of local marshy natural habitat, which in recent years haven’t been built over with the same enthusiasm as in bygone times. He says the decline in swallows has not yet been extensively studied, but some bird watchers have linked it to the drop in the number of insects as more people use pesticides.

Asch, for his part, sometimes wonders how Montreal’s animals have done so well in the face of the many habitat-wrecking misdeeds of us two-legged beasts with opposable thumbs. “Almost 100 per cent of Montreal’s shorelines have been covered in landfill, and even though our shorelines were almost entirely modified by humans we still have among the largest population of nesting ducks in Quebec, as well as 66 species of fish, frogs, rare turtles and snakes,” he says. :

—Kristian Gravenor