Each spring, Bear Creek Stables supported a thriving community of nesting birds. Migratory barn swallows returned to nests tucked beneath barn roofs and eaves. Killdeer laid their eggs on the open ground near the old pasture and bat houses. Black phoebes, Brewer’s blackbirds, and other species nested throughout the facility, raising their young alongside the daily activity of the stables.
By late April, dozens of nests were typically active with eggs and nestlings in some of the most obvious places imaginable: inside horse stalls, beneath barn eaves, on rafters, and even on top of a rake hanging in a barn.
On April 27, 2026, a biologist spent 6.5 hours surveying approximately 86 acres around Bear Creek Stables. The survey prepared for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District reported no active nests, no barn swallows, and no killdeer within the survey area.
For those who watched these birds return year after year, the findings are difficult to reconcile with what Bear Creek Stables once was.
How did a site that supported dozens of active nests become a place where none were found? What happened to the barn swallows? What happened to the killdeer? And what role, if any, did years of nesting-season disturbance play in the disappearance of a once-thriving breeding bird community?
Midpen, what happened to the birds?
