Re: [cobirds] Barn Swallows & the City Park Bandstand Fire

To Mike and Pat,

Thank you so much for caring about the swallows at the Bandstand. I have loved watching them nest there. If the City doesn't want to renew the bandstand, I wonder if we could prevail upon them to put up some kind of replacement structure for the swallows to use in the future.  Hmmmmm.....

Colleen

On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 2:19:40 AM UTC-6 Patrick O'Driscoll wrote:

Hey Mike, FYI, the Barn Swallows already are returning.

I counted eight on Thursday, 4/16, and all were flying in and out of the area underneath the bandstand.

From what I can tell from the limited vantage point of standing outside the cordoned-off area, it appears that the fire may have only burned through one central portion of the foundation between bandstand and lake water.

There are timbers and debris underneath, but they don't appear to be extensive.

Anyway, I hope the city doesn't commence demolition anytime soon -- though frankly, I wasn't expecting them to.

The city budget being as tight as it is (I think a $200 million shortfall, give or take a few mil), I doubt there's $$ available for demolition this quickly.

And now that the swallows are coming back, they'd be unwise to start now.

I guess we'll see eventually.

pat o'

On Sat, Apr 11, 2026 at 3:05 PM Mike Fernandez <2mi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Regarding the fire-destroyed Denver City Park bandstand: I've asked several organizations to please consider demolishing the structure as soon as possible—hopefully before the Barn Swallows return and build their nests under the structure. They usually start arriving in late April. They will likely build nests regardless of the conditions. It would be sad to demolish the building when it has active nests. Their numbers in City Park are in the hundreds. 

I wrote on April 8 to: 

- City Park Friends and Neighbors
- City Park Alliance
- Denver Parks & Rec
- Denver City Council Dist 9 Darrell Watson directly. Plus the two at-large members, also directly.  

And have not received a single acknowledgment, other than a ticket number autogenerated by denvergov. 

I will keep at it, but if you have any thoughts or suggestions about this concern, please reply. 

Thanks. 

== ==

mike fernandez

Denver
720-351-0887
Communications & Outreach
Denver Field Ornithologists 

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