Swallows building nest

[billytheghillie]

Sat in garden today and watched a pair of swallows building a nest in my old outbuilding. Is it not a bit late for this? Freaky hot weather to blame?

[ditchman]

thats sounds a bit strange............perhaps they know the summer is going to be longer than usual and there will be plenty of buzzies to eat on the wing and to feed a brood........

HHHHmmmmmm !

[Walker570]

The birds know better than we do. Hope they raise a brood..  Another plus for dairy farmers is the slurry. I often sit watching activity on a couple of large slurry pits and the only swallows I have seen this year have been cruising back and forth sucking in the fly life, similarly grey and pied wagtails with at least a couple of dozen at any one time.

[johnphilip]

We normally have about 5 or 6 housemartins  or swallows nests on our house each year . Not one this year . I am only 100 yards from the farm I rent my cottage of .

I see maybe 20 on my telephone wires of an evening , weather they have nested up at the farm buildings I don't know . 

Has the ground been to hard to get nesting material . I am lest than  half a mile from the beach all up the coast  poor sea birds washed up with bird flu , so sad .

I just  don't know the reason , it's something I look forward to each year the arriving , nest building and rearing there young .

[SuperGoose75]

The Swallows,Swifts and Martin's both house and sand, are all here in good numbers this year.

The housemartins have been busy since they arrived and I love watching them building new nests and repairing old ones. I usually wait until they they have all fledged before cleaning up the mess on the tiles on the front door shelter as they nest above this. I usually glean gutters and all when doing this job.  Last year and this year they brought off two broods. 

I was surprised to see them start building a new nest beside the current one on the 23rd of July. It was complete and the Martin's in it, in a matter of a few days. It wasn't long before I heard the young ones chittering during the night. There are lots of other nests in the street and I watched the young Martin's attempting to start new nests on other houses during the heatwave.

I think they may instinctively know more than we do about what the future weather holds. Or maybe they are just chancers making the most of a good spell. The work ethic of these wee feathered beings has to be admired.

 

[johnphilip]

18 minutes ago, SuperGoose75 said:

The Swallows,Swifts and Martin's both house and sand, are all here in good numbers this year.

The housemartins have been busy since they arrived and I love watching them building new nests and repairing old ones. I usually wait until they they have all fledged before cleaning up the mess on the tiles on the front door shelter as they nest above this. I usually glean gutters and all when doing this job.  Last year and this year they brought off two broods. 

I was surprised to see them start building a new nest beside the current one on the 23rd of July. It was complete and the Martin's in it, in a matter of a few days. It wasn't long before I heard the young ones chittering during the night. There are lots of other nests in the street and I watched the young Martin's attempting to start new nests on other houses during the heatwave.

I think they may instinctively know more than we do about what the future weather holds. Or maybe they are just chancers making the most of a good spell. The work ethic of these wee feathered beings has to be admired.

 

That is so good to here ,

[chesterse]

We live in a fairly remote location in the Lincolnshire Fens and have been delighted to have had two broods of four swallows off from nests in our front porch.

We left the only nest from last year but the swallows decided to build a new one opposite it for the first brood. When those four had flown the parents then proceeded to successfully rear a second brood of four in last year’s nest which left the nest about 2 weeks ago.

It was fascinating when the youngsters were about to fly we were inundated around the house with about 50 swallows as if they were trying to get the young ones to fly. The other thought I had was that it might had been a tactic to confuse any attacking sparrow hawks away from the vulnerable young birds.

[Scully]

Was watching some house martins flitting about an hour or so ago, and bang! down swooped a Sparrowhawk and nabbed one! First time I’ve ever seen that happen!  

[billytheghillie]

Strange, watched the half built nest on Sunday and they didnt come near it, no sign of them at it today.

[old man]

On 15/08/2022 at 18:05, billytheghillie said:

Strange, watched the half built nest on Sunday and they didnt come near it, no sign of them at it today.

Probably realised like the rest of us that or would be better to leave asap?😃