Swallow Tales

A goodly while back, on a clear Wednesday morning, we decided that the weekend would see us finally complete the roofing under the large covered area outside our kitchen - our room outdoors.  On Wednesday afternoon, a pair of swallows started poking around, and by Friday evening, there was a nest in our rafters - effectively scotching any chance of construction until the autumn.  Chittering (and shittering) away, mum and dad finished a nest, she laid eggs, and every morning we were blessed with the sound of the swallow family doing their swallow things.

Last week the three chicks fledged and, using our rotary washing line as a staging post, made their way out into the big, wide world.  The whole family now perches much of the time on our swallow cable between the house and sheds (Ian M insists it's the electrical supply to the house, but I know better...it was put up ESPECIALLY for the birds).  Last night I did my usual check to see who was up in the rafters outside the bedroom window, only to be confronted by a row of twelve bottoms - clearly our family was hosting guests and we have been given an Expedia 5-star rating.  It makes all of the poop stains on the wall worthwhile (although Ian M was a little foolish to leave his boots out there one night).  A second nest is almost finished, in the next alcove along, so if this is a successful brood, we'll have hosted the production of another 6 or 7 swallows.  Probably the most important thing we achieve all year.

Not only do the swallows swoop around the house all day, they follow us across the fields when driving sheep or riding the bike, picking up tasty morsels as we disturb the insect fauna.  If we drive slowly enough, the fly-bys are wonderul!  Other field denizens remain unfazed.

It's not only swallows who have been using us as a safe haven for breeding.  Sparrow gangs roam, having bred in the sheds.  Mum sparrows are now back on the nests/in the boxes, while the dads take out their progeny and show them the ropes - it's not unusual to see three or four males with twelve plus youngsters incautiously cavorting about and dust-bathing during the dry weather (even more so now, given that I found an extra bucket of oats at the back of the barn).  Our pied wagtails used my car as a feeding station for their four fledglings, and we know we have also had breeding in the garden or sheds chaffinches, blackbirds, wrens, yellowhammers, collared doves, whitethroats, and robins.  While not nesting nearby, one buzzard regularly sits on a post in the garden looking for tasty morsels of the rodent variety.  We've also seen fox cubs and fawns from the house (with dad's telescope being most useful)...

...speaking of which, recent planet-gazing was most satisfying, clearly seeing Saturn's rings, and even being able to take a photograph of Jupiter and four of its moons.  In real life, it was much clearer...but you get the picture!

[Just watched a male blackbird pounce into my flowerbed, grab a snail, and beat the heck out of it - bravo buddy!  Keep that up!]