Swallow Summer

by Charles Robert Brown

Each May for fifteen consecutive years, Charles R. Brown has trekked to the Cedar Point Biological Station in western Nebraska to learn more about the behavior of colonial cliff swallows. He, his wife, and several student assistants spend the summers observing, catching, and banding swallows to determine life span, migration patterns, and nesting habits. Why study one species of swallow for fifteen years? With Swallow Summer Brown answers all the tourists, highway patrolmen, and local residents who have asked why he was leaning over bridges with nets, wading in mud up to his knees, or staring fixedly into culverts, where swallows often build their mud nests. He finds these birds fascinating. This book is about a passion for birds, but it is also about the personal challenges of scientific research. Brown provides a daily chronicle of field work at Cedar Point—including the joy of holding a swallow that has returned to the same site for eleven years and the inevitable frictions between researchers and local residents. Blending humorous anecdotes and insightful scientific observations, Brown writes an engaging tale. Moreover, he makes sophisticated biology accessible to anyone who cares about nature.

377 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

From the website listed: "CHARLES R. BROWN, Ph.D
Project Director
Charles began studying cliff swallows in 1980, and has conducted research on them full-time since 1982. His cliff swallow research in western Nebraska is one of the longest-running field studies of birds done in North America. He received a B.A. in biology from Austin College in 1981, and a Ph.D. in biology from Princeton University in 1985. He is currently a professor of biological science at the University of Tulsa, where he has been since 1994"

Reviews

[Maris]

Researcher's account of a summer researching cliff swallows. The author is very much not a creative writer, but the charm lies in how honest and passionate he is about his subject. The swallows are his primary subjects for the book, and secondary are the people who are around him for his research - and he is clearly not a people person.

[Laura Jackson]

A thoroughly engaging, deep dive into behavioral ecology research and one man’s passion. Through the diary of a single summer, Charles Brown shares the human side of his important, long-term research on coloniality in the cliff swallow. His page-turning narrative captures the thrill of dawning incremental discoveries amid the grueling drudgery of teamwork in the field. The dedicated crew is portrayed with realism and affection, and Mary shines as the insightful and intrepid right-hand woman. Both a window into the research process and a history to date of Brown’s project, this account raises interesting questions throughout: Are large colonies mostly young birds? What is the survival cost to breeding late in the season? Will northward migration of the cave swallow lead to competition or cross-breeding? The fans call for Volume 2!

[Brenda]

Most people would find this a boring book, but I enjoy reading scientific studies.

[The Dread Pirate Peg Leg]

Read for scientific knowledge on Cliff Swallows. Stayed for the field tech drama.