AILSA CHANG, HOST:
At this very moment, a few dozen birds are on their way to Rye, New Hampshire. The birds are barn swallows. And every spring, they migrate to nest inside an 18th century barn. But the swallows are in for a surprise this year because the town is refusing to open the barn's windows. New Hampshire Public Radio's Todd Bookman reports.
TODD BOOKMAN, BYLINE: The setting for this big fight over a little bird is bucolic.
It's a big barn.
SALLY KING: It's a huge barn. It's great.
BOOKMAN: A barn built in the late 1700s close to the ocean that the town of Rye now owns. Sally King used to serve on the commission that manages the barn. Inside, there's just some tools and farm equipment. And each spring, like clockwork, barn swallows arrive, as many as 50, 60 birds.
KING: It's a thriving colony. Very unusual to have this many. And it's always been a healthy population. We welcome them every year, and excited to see them.
BOOKMAN: Barn swallows have steel blue backs, chestnut throats, forked tails and a sweet little song.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
BOOKMAN: They're acrobatic, sweeping through the field to catch flies and mosquitoes. Then they'll head back to their nests up in the rafters, where they feed their young and also relieve themselves.
KING: Bird poop (laughter).
BOOKMAN: A couple dozen birds - the waste kind of piles up. And it is this issue, the barn swallow droppings, that's now dividing the town.
JOE MARTTILA: Because you're walking in this barn, the shaking, you would see it. It would just kind of flake down.
BOOKMAN: Like snow.
MARTTILA: Yeah, like snow.
BOOKMAN: This is Joe Marttila, a member of the town's Conservation Commission, painting a lovely visual. In February, the commission said enough's enough. They voted to keep the barn windows here closed this spring, evict the birds. Vic Odryna is the commission's chair. He says they have a vision of using the barn as a farmers market. You can't do that if the walls, floors and light fixtures are streaked.
VIC ODRYNA: This is a town organization. It's a town property. We have to be careful about, you know, people's safety and what have you as well.
BOOKMAN: Barn swallows nationally are not endangered, but their numbers are down in New Hampshire. That's in part likely because there are fewer barns left here. Barn swallows have tied themselves to man-made structures. They don't nest and lay eggs out in nature anymore.
Over the past few weeks, the keep the birds out camp has designed and built elaborate bird houses just outside the barn, hoping to entice the swallows to nest there instead. Still, some folks are unhappy. There's been chirping at public meetings. And signs have popped up at the end of driveways, let the swallows in. Susan Shepcaro is squarely on team open the barn.
SUSAN SHEPCARO: I mean, people literally come here to see the birds and hear the birds. So how am I feeling? I'm feeling desperate to get the barn open is how I'm feeling.
BOOKMAN: Whose barn is it anyways? The birds, set to arrive within the next week or two, are about to find out.
For NPR News, I'm Todd Bookman.
(SOUNDBITE OF KACEY MUSGRAVES SONG, "BUTTERFLIES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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