Where have all the swallows gone?

[cyprusgrump]

I really hope the weather this year has only delayed them and they'll appear again soon.

All at my house...

[Dominic]

They are nesting in our porch, and drinking out of the bowls we put out for the hedgehogs.

[Dominic]

Come to think of it, I posted a picture of one of them, all tarted up, on a blog. Here it is again...

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[panoscouse]

They've been dive bombing my pool for the last month.

Great to see.

[smudger]

Lucky, lucky swallows with all you lovely people looking out for them!

[Keith]

At the Extreme View Taverna, with four chicks in the nest and I have been watching them the last couple of weeks.
Looking at them they are due to go their own way soon.

A great pleasure watching them.

Keith

[Dominic]

Yes the morning chorus is an excellent alarm clock, especially if you sleep with the window open.

[Ams]

We're discussing swallows in the bee-eaters post. A couple of us noted there are noticeably less this year. For the last couple of years my neighbours and I had each had 3 nests in our patios, this year between us we only have 1.

[die6]

Can rent you some. We have enough.

[Uncle D]

There doesn't seem as many as usual, but some despicable people destroy their nests.

[PeteandSylvi]

There's as many as usual here diving in the pool, squabbling through the veranda and flying through the house occasionally.

Pete

[Dominic]

Sometimes their nests just collapse. On the rafter behind the one with the swallow's nest on in our porch, is another, older nest, with a hole in the side. It looks like it just split.

[cyprusgrump]

I said we had loads here!

I just found one flying round and round our kitchen!

[Dominic]

There doesn't seem as many as usual, but some despicable people destroy their nests.

That is unfathomable!

Some people do because they don't want what they perceive as a 'mess' around their homes. Unfathonable, I know! Here, we all put some newspaper on the ground under the nests, held in place by a couple of stones. Easily changed; easily cleaned. And it's a privilege and joy to be able to watch the swallow families on their journey in life.

We are actually destroying the nests in our patio later in the year. The hope is that the swallows will rebuild them properly. They did a Heath Robinson on an old nest after the incident with the magpie, and unfortunately they didn't pay too much attention to the base of the nest. The egg fell through the bottom. So we figured that if we destroyed the nest completely they would rebuild it properly. I want to make the area as magpie proof as I can as well.

[ApusApus]

Commendable Dominic but instead of having to patch up the nest next year they will have to build an almost new one which is a waste of energy for them! Swallows, Martins & Swifts, etc are definitely in decline, though I have seen similar amounts this year as in previous years, but the most important thing for them is providing suitable nesting habitats, remember these were cliff nesting birds a long time ago that adapted to living with us! When we started "cleaning" up our buildings they started having problems together with other factors like food availability!

It's also worth pointing out that these birds will have 3 or 4 broods a year of between 4-6 eggs each time so there is a high mortality rate expected among these species! No comfort I know but a reality check


Shane

[PolemIan]

Dozens here, Chaos for Mrs W trying to swim the other day... there were about 80-100 on the power lines to our house that day.

[Dominic]

Commendable Dominic but instead of having to patch up the nest next year they will have to build an almost new one which is a waste of energy for them! Swallows, Martins & Swifts, etc are definitely in decline, though I have seen similar amounts this year as in previous years, but the most important thing for them is providing suitable nesting habitats, remember these were cliff nesting birds a long time ago that adapted to living with us! When we started "cleaning" up our buildings they started having problems together with other factors like food availability!

It's also worth pointing out that these birds will have 3 or 4 broods a year of between 4-6 eggs each time so there is a high mortality rate expected among these species! No comfort I know but a reality check


Shane

They patched up the nest this year. But they didn't do it properly. That's the whole point of making them start from scratch.