In a world that can be full of noise and turmoil, the calm energy that the wetlands and forests bring me is so treasured. Springtime is here in the Creston Valley and at the CVWMA with all the wonderful sounds, sights and smells. Take the extra few minutes of your day if you can, to look a little longer at that view, to hear those new bird noises in the distance, or to realize the extraordinary colour of that new budding flower. We are surrounded by beauty.
While all the wildlife is busy in the wetlands and around us, the staff here at CVWMA are getting into the busy time of the year as well. Seasonal bird and wildlife monitoring and surveys are underway so if you are out on the CVWMA dyke trails you likely will see our staff and other crews out with their binoculars, scopes, waders, field notebooks, and smiles.
A large portion of the turtle fence is now up along West Creston Road, and the Beaver Boulevard trail has some new surfacing thanks to the annual hard working Selkirk College Recreation, Fish and Wildlife students, and CVWMA staff! Great job everyone! Another work bee will be held in the near future to erect the rest of the fencing South of the Kootenay-Columbia Discovery Centre, so watch for the notice online in partnership with Wildsight Creston Valley, if you are interested in lending a hand.
Included this month is an update on the Corn Creek Marsh South Bird tower repairs, spring swallow news from Julia and more!
Kindly,
Alyson Brda
CVWMA Office Administrator
Corn Creek Marsh South Observation Tower Repair Updates
If you have been walking on the trails in Corn Creek Marsh near the Kootenay-Columbia Discovery Centre Society interpretive building, you may have seen that we have been working on repairing the observation tower legs that were damages by insect last year. Both legs have now been replaced and the last thing needing replacing are three supporting braces. If all goes well, viewing from the tower should be available to the public again by Mother’s Day weekend. In the meantime, please, continue to avoid the worksite by going around the “horseshoe” dyke that goes around the tower. Your cooperation and patience are greatly appreciated!
It’s Swallow Season at the CVWMA!
Article by: Julia Kaczkowski, CVWMA Wildlife Stewardship Technologist
One of my favourite things about spring is the return of the swallows. After the dreary grey days of winter, it is such a joy to see these little jewel-toned aerial athletes swoop gracefully around the wetlands. Tree Swallows, along with Violet Green Swallows, are among the first swallow species to arrive in the Creston Valley, and numerous pairs have already begun to build their nests. Indeed, visitors to Corn Creek Marsh in recent weeks have likely seen Tree Swallows staking out their claims to the many nest boxes installed along the marshland trails. Barn Swallows and Cliff Swallows arrive slightly later. A singular Barn Swallow was spotted by CVWMA staff member Julia Shewan during Kootenay Meadows’ annual Spring Turnout on April 18 – trust a birder to be keeping an eye on the birds as well as the cows during this popular community event!
Returning readers may recall CVWMA installed a barn-like structure bordering the Duck Lake Nesting area in the fall of 2024. Dubbed the “Swallow Resort”, the structure was built to provide nesting habitat for Barn Swallows and was modeled after CVWMA’s very successful “Barn Swallow Hotel” within Corn Creek Marsh. Since Barn Swallows often will evaluate and select potential future nesting sites prior to their migration south, it was expected that the structure could remain vacant during the 2025 breeding season. What a delightful surprise then, for CVWMA staff to discover one Barn Swallow pair building a nest within one of the structure’s fabricated wooden nest cups in late May 2025! Weekly nest monitoring checks conducted by CVWMA staff revealed the pair bred twice within the structure and successfully fledged a minimum of 7 young. Once the last chicks had fledged, staff moved four nest cups that had been nested in by Barn Swallows during the 2025 breeding season from the Corn Creek Swallow Hotel into the Swallow Resort. This was done in hopes of attracting more Barn Swallows to the Swallow Resort in future years, as previously used nests are a visual cue indicating suitable habitat for prospecting swallows during the nesting site selection process. With breeding season just around the corner, we are curious to see how many Barn Swallow pairs inhabit the Swallow Resort in 2026. In preparation for the arrival of the swallows, our Wildlife Habitat and Operations Technician, Jacob Ewashen, upgraded the Resort this spring with the addition of a perch wire adjacent to the structure. Perch wires allow swallows to rest and socialize while providing a great vantage point and safety from terrestrial predators.
Newly installed perch wire at the Swallow Resort
Modifications were also made to the Cliff Swallow nesting structure located at the south end of Duck Lake recently. This structure was built in 2020 with a combination of wooden and fibre cement sections to assess which material provided the best substrate for Cliff Swallow nests, and has been monitored by CVWMA staff from 2021 to 2025. While Cliff Swallows built the highest number of nests on the wooden sections initially, CVWMA staff have noticed during monitoring surveys that these sections also have the highest rates of nest fall, both during the breeding season and over the winter. The fibre cement sections exhibit the best overall nest retention, and the majority of Cliff Swallow nests have been built on this substrate over the past few years. It is energetically more costly for these birds to build a new nest “from scratch” rather than patching up last year’s existing nest, and thus nest reuse allows Cliff Swallows to dedicate more energy to raising their young. With these observations in mind, the wooden sections were replaced with fibre cement panels in mid-March. The panels were scored with shallow crosshatches to provide a textured surface onto which birds can easily grip as they construct their gourd-shaped mud nests. Monitoring will continue in the 2026 breeding season to evaluate how these modifications affect Cliff Swallow utilization of the structure.
Cliff Swallows building their nests on the brand new Cliff Swallow structure in 2021
In the future, CVWMA plans to install a new nesting structure at north end of Duck Lake to provide additional nesting habitat for the Cliff Swallows who currently nest underneath the pumphouse. Stay tuned for details! Finally, a reminder that while we invite members of the public to visit CVWMA’s various swallow nesting structures, we kindly ask that you observe bird activity from a respectful distance and refrain from entering the Swallow Hotel and Resort. Barn Swallows are listed as a species of Special Concern in Canada due to steep population declines. Your consideration will help give these birds the best chance of successfully raising their young, so that future generations can enjoy the springtime spectacle of swallows swooping and diving over our beautiful wetlands for years to come.
CVWMA is a federally registered Charity.Donate Now,though our website, and an official receipt will be issued to you for tax purposes.
THANK YOU to all who support CVWMA, and believing in our mission to manage the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area for conservation and natural species diversity through active habitat and wildlife management, research and education!
