The Barn Swallows had me fooled!

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

This past spring, on April 22^nd to be exact, our Barn Swallows returned from their distant wintering quarters in Central and South America.  I saw only five of them that day, and their photo appears below.  I was concerned that there were only five, significantly fewer than during previous years.

I eagerly anticipated the nesting season that was about to commence.  If there were only five Barn Swallows showing up this year, we certainly needed their population number to increase.  As the days went by, however, I was disappointed that I could not find any Barn Swallow nests on this property.  Memories of Barn Swallows nesting on my porch in 2011 and 2012 as described in my book seemed distant and vague.  Besides, who was going to catch all the flying insects this summer?  Many flying insects are regarded as pests by humans, and Barn Swallows have been valued for centuries as natural forms of pest control.

Barn Swallows are adorable birds.  They are amazingly intelligent, agile, and comfortable in the presence of humans, at least in the presence of humans who do not threaten them.  What I like most about Barn Swallows, however, is their relatively egalitarian social structure as compared with many other songbirds.  In the Barn Swallow species, both the male and female build their nest and feed their young.  The male even helps incubate the eggs.  

As the days passed, I began seeing Barn Swallows swooping under the eave of the lower corner of the building where I live.  In fact, the swallows would periodically swoop at me during the mornings when I was in the yard refilling the bird feeders on the nearby tree.

Why were the swallows swooping at me, and what were they trying to protect?  I walked around the building and inspected all of its eaves, searching for Barn Swallow nests.  The photo on the right shows what a typical Barn Swallow nest looks like.  After thoroughly inspecting all four walls of the building, however, I did not find any nests. I then decided to investigate the corner of the building where I had seen the swallows swooping.

I ventured under the eave and carefully inspected the wall and the ceiling of the overhang, but saw no trace of a Barn Swallow nest, or at least the type of cup-shaped nest that Barn Swallows build.  What I did see, however, intrigued me to no end.

A drainage pipe protrudes from the lower back wall of the building.  I discovered that the top of the pipe, which is at a height of about eight feet (almost 2.5 meters) from the ground, was covered with mud and straw.  The inside pipe perimeter also seemed to be lined with mud and straw, leaving an opening in the center of the pipe.  To the above left is a photo of the pipe that I took on May 10^th.

Can Barn Swallows nest inside a pipe?  No, that seemed impossible.  The pipe would have to lead to an open space inside the building where they could build a nest.

Each day I kept wondering if a nest was being built on top of the pipe.  From my second-story porch, I was unable to see the pipe itself, which protrudes from lower level of my building and is obscured by the roof that overhangs it.  

The photo to the right shows the view from my porch as I am looking toward the location of the pipe.  The red arrow points to the location where the pipe is hidden underneath the eave.  Therefore, in order to check the pipe each day, I had to venture down the stairs of my porch and then turn back toward the building.  Once I approached the overhang, I could see the pipe.

A few weeks later, I decided to be a bit more proactive.  Just in case the swallows were in the process of building a nest above the pipe, I fabricated a ledge on which they could build it.  I took a small rectangle of corrugated cardboard and covered it with duct tape.  I then attached the rectangle to the side and above the pipe, again with duct tape.  A little sloppy, but it was the best that I could do!  You can see in the photo at the above left, taken July 17th, that the swallows eventually applied a little mud to the ledge.

Early one morning, I approached the pipe to find out if a nest was being built on top of it.  To my surprise, three birds suddenly came flying out from under the eave and away from the building!  They flew out so quickly that I surmised that they must have been perching on the cardboard ledge I had affixed beside the top of the pipe.

After the three birds flew out and away from the eave, I ventured closer to the pipe.  Upon my inspection of it, I found nothing different … just a pipe covered with mud, the inside of the pipe lined with mud and straw, and a little mud on top of the ledge.

Intermittently over the next few weeks, as I watched from my porch, swallows were flying to and from that corner of the building.  One morning there were two swallows coming and going, each spending only a few seconds under the eave and then departing again.

This made me wonder if the swallows were arriving at the pipe with mud to build a nest on the duct-tape-covered ledge that I had set up.  But no, my checking of the ledge did not reveal any additional mud on top of it.

The swallow activity calmed down for a while, but a few weeks later, I noticed it again.  I began to do some Internet research on whether Barn Swallows ever nest inside a pipe.  The only reference I could find to such an activity was on a website forum where RV and camper owners were complaining that Barn Swallows were starting nests inside the exhaust pipes of their parked vehicles.  The comments indicated that the vehicle owners considered the swallows to be a nuisance.  To rid the swallows and their nests from the pipes, they would start their vehicle engines, causing the exhaust to blow the nesting material away.  Indeed, I found that the diameter of the drainage pipe on my building was approximately the size of the diameter of the exhaust pipe on my car.

On the morning of June 22nd, there had been a whole flock of swallows swooping toward the corner of the building and under the eave.  The swallows seemed to be intent upon raiding the area where the pipe was located.  Through binoculars, I observed that some of the birds seemed to be Cliff Swallows.

It made more sense to me that the pipe would be appropriate for a Cliff Swallow nest rather than a Barn Swallow nest, especially if the pipe led to a wider opening inside the building.  This is because Cliff Swallows build nests with small entrance holes and tunnels leading toward the inside of their nests.  A pipe, if it indeed led to a wider space, would seem to serve that purpose. 

To the right is a photo of a Cliff Swallow nest.  In fact, it is the nest on my porch that was originally built by Barn Swallows but modified by Cliff Swallows two years later.  The entrance hole is part of a passageway that leads to the more open part of the nest. 

Cliff Swallows, who usually nest in colonies, are known to raid their own nests.  In the Cliff Swallow species, there seems to be great competition for nests, supposedly because some Cliff Swallow nests are built so poorly that they end up being destroyed by harsh weather conditions.  Consequently, Cliff Swallows who have built a faulty nest are often forced to usurp the nests of other Cliff Swallows.

Another reason that Cliff Swallows highly value other Cliff Swallow nests is that they have a habit of removing an egg from their own nest and placing it into another nest.  Sometimes they will first remove an egg from the other nest first.  I have read that both the male and female Cliff Swallows engage in this type of activity.

Yet on most mornings, the birds flying around the pipe were Barn Swallows.  And on only one morning was there such a large number of birds flocking toward the corner of the building. 

As the summer progressed, I would sit on my porch each morning.  I continued to see a pair of Barn Swallows, one-by-one, visiting the area of the pipe.  Again, I could not see the pipe itself from my porch because it was obscured by the overhang (see previous photo). 

In the late afternoons and evenings I would again inspect the pipe, but it continued to look the same as it previously had, with no nest visible.  I never actually saw a bird fly in or out of the pipe.  In order to do so, I would have to approach the pipe so closely that it would have given the birds ample warning not enter or leave the pipe.

There were several swallows on the roof of my building on the morning of July 16^th, as shown in the photo below, which I took from my porch.  This is the upper roof of the building not shown in the photo, not the lower overhang under which the pipe is located.  Since this upper roof is near the same part of the building where the lower overhang and pipe are located, these birds could have fledged from the nest inside the pipe, assuming, of course, that there was indeed a nest inside the pipe!

The birds on the roof were definitely Barn Swallows, not Cliff Swallows.  One of them is shown in the photo to the right.  Although the breast color looks light, the lack of a white patch on the forehead shows it to be a Barn Swallow.  It is a juvenile, as shown by the continuous breast band.  Unlike European Barn Swallows, our Barn Swallow adults have "broken", or discontinuous breast bands.

On July 17^th, while I was sitting on the porch, a male Barn Swallow flew toward the corner of the building, but landed on the nearby fence when he saw me.  I was able to take a photo, which appears below.  The discontinuous breast band, along with the rich colors on the rest of his plumage, shows him to be an adult male.  He didn’t look too happy that I was in his presence!

On the morning of July 18^th, there were numerous swallow fledglings on the utility wire.  After observing them closely through binoculars, I noticed that some of them were Cliff Swallows!  The photo below shows a fledgling Cliff Swallow on the left.  The three birds to the Cliff Swallow’s right are fledgling Barn Swallows.

Where did all of these babies hatch?  Had they fledged from a nest on my building?  Or perhaps their parents had directed them to perch on that wire because the wire’s location gives a nice, wide view of our valley, enabling the fledglings to more easily spot their parents flying toward them to feed them.

Just eight days later, on July 26^th, there were even more swallows on the wire.  Four of them are shown in the photo below.

On August 1^st, I was out in my yard refilling the bird feeders on the tree.  A Barn Swallow came flying from the corner of the building and landed on the fence behind the tree.  He allowed me to photograph him, and the photo on the right proves him to have been an adult male.  He could have well have been the same male as in the previous photo taken on July 17^th, with the sunlight hitting his feathers differently.

On the morning of August 3^rd, I counted 13 swallows on the wires.  There was a group of seven on one wire and a group of six on an adjacent wire.  By observing the birds through binoculars, I surmised that they were all juveniles.  The photo to the left shows two of them.  These are both Barn Swallows.

I began to assume that Barn Swallows had indeed nested in the pipe earlier in the summer.  And perhaps there had been not just one, but two nestings – two broods of swallow babies who had fledged from that nest.

By August 12^th, there were no more swallows on the wires.  But, on both the mornings of August 13^th and 14^th, I observed a solitary swallow circling high over the property.  Although swallows are generally flocking birds, I wondered if this lone swallow had been a male fledgling from the pipe nest who was viewing the nest’s location one more time in order to claim the nest upon his arrival next spring.

Yes, a young male Barn Swallow will sometimes do this.  He will return the following spring and claim the nest in which he was hatched.  He will then proceed to attract a female to the nest, and if the female approves of both him and the nest, the pair will mate, and the female will lay her eggs in that nest.

I experienced this very phenomenon by observing my porch nest during the summers of 2011 and 2012.  It sounds unbelievable that a young Barn Swallow could fly to South America, only to return in the spring and find the very nest in which he was hatched, but this has proven to be true!  You can read a detailed narrative of it in my book.

As of this date, all of our swallows have departed for their long journeys south for the winter.  The photo to the left shows the way the pipe looked on August 16th.  Again, you can see that, although the swallows had applied mud and straw to the top of the ledge that I had installed for them, they had not build a nest there.

It still remains a mystery as to how Barn Swallows could have nested inside the pipe.  Even if I assume that they did so, how did they do it?  I do not own the building and therefore do not know if the pipe leads to an open space.  If the pipe had not been a nesting place for swallows, why else would I have experienced swallows swooping at me while I was walking around the yard near the corner of my building?  And why did we have so many juvenile swallows perching on the nearby utility wire?

Perhaps the mystery will be solved next spring.  I plan to carefully observe whether any of the returning swallows show interest in that corner of the building and the pipe that protrudes from it.

In Bonding with the Barn Swallows, you can read about the unexpected location where one special male Barn Swallow perched all night and why he perched there.  You can also read about how that same Barn Swallow communicated to me on two occasions, once through typical Barn Swallow twittering, and again by his body language on the utility wire while perched next to two other Barn Swallows.  Two days later, an event revealed what he was trying to tell me.

Just click on the image to the upper right to find out more about the book.  You can click on "Look inside" to see the Table of Contents and read the first few pages of the book.  Or, you can click on "Surprise me" and read other pages!

 

 

Nesting Bluebirds -- Bugs for the Babies!

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

The Bluebird eggs have hatched!  My estimation is that the hatching date was July 5^th.  That would be the date of the hatching of the first egg.  Bluebird eggs are said to hatch within twenty-four hours of each other, although the last-laid egg might take a little longer.  The general rule is that all of the eggs will hatch within 48 hours of the first egg hatching, unless any of them are infertile. 

If you are interested in knowing how I estimated the hatching date, you can read the Technical Section below.

There were four eggs in the nest, and now there are four Bluebird babies.  I do not check the inside of the box very frequently for fear of stressing the parent Bluebirds.  The last time I checked, which was on Wednesday, July 15^th, the babies had light-colored “pin feathers” on them.  Assuming a hatching date of July 5^th, the first-hatched baby was ten days old at that time.

I have not photographed the babies, but if you go to the following site and look at Figure 5, you can see approximately what the babies looked like on July 15^th:  http://www.wbu.com/chipperwoods/photos/ebluebird.htm.  Here’s another photo of 10-day-old Bluebirds:  http://www.sialis.org/images/series/ybb11thday.jpg.

As the babies grow larger, they need increasing amounts of food and higher frequencies of feeding.  Their food consists of bugs, more technically called insects, that the babies’ parents bring to the nest box.  On the right is a photo of Mama Bluebird with what might be a grasshopper in her beak.  She is preparing to feed at least one baby through the nest box hole when she feels that it is safe to do so.  The blossoms in the background are on a Mimosa tree.

Both parents have been diligently hunting for insects and bringing them to the box to feed to the babies.  The insects that Bluebirds eat are largely those that live on the ground.  A Bluebird will perch on a fence, a utility wire, or a building's roof and focus on the ground below.  Once it sees an insect, it will quickly swoop to the ground, capture the insect, and immediately return to its higher post to either digest the insect or save it to feed its youngsters.

The parent Bluebirds closely guard the nest box and for good reason.  We have roaming, feral cats around here that eat birds.  The parent Bluebirds probably also consider me to be a potential predator because they are extremely cautious about feeding their babies when I am taking pictures of them.

The photo on the left shows both Mama and Papa Bluebird on top of the box with insects in their beaks.  They are awaiting a safe time to feed their babies.

Mama Bluebird is more cautious than Papa Bluebird and likes to wait until I am out of the way before she feeds her babies.  I have very few photos, if any, of Mama feeding the babies though the nest box hole.

Finally, after a few minutes of both Mama and Papa Bluebird perching on top of the nest box, Papa Bluebird deemed it safe enough to feed his insect to the babies inside the box.  Mama stayed on top of the box awaiting her turn, as shown in the photo below.

The photo on the right, taken early in the morning, shows Papa Bluebird on top of the box holding an insect, a large one at that!  Since I was there with my camera, he was watching me to be certain that I would not interfere with his feeding of the babies.

I wondered how many babies that large insect would feed.  Interestingly, male Bluebirds are said to show preference for feeding the female babies instead of the males.  It is speculated that the Papa Bluebird would rather have the females grow up and be healthy because, unlike the males, they will not interfere with his breeding territory next spring.  Instead, the females will go off with their own mates into another territory.  In short, male Bluebirds compete for breeding territories, which are usually five or six acres in size, but they can sometimes range up to twenty acres.

Much of this information presented here can be found in the delightful book, Eastern Bluebird by Gary Ritchison, which I heartily recommend if you would like to find out more about Eastern Bluebirds.  The book is well illustrated with superb photos and contains a great deal of information.

After perching on top of the box and holding the huge insect in his beak, Papa Bluebird proceeded to feed the babies.  As the photo to the left shows, Papa landed on the front of the box and fed the insect to the babies inside. 

Immediately afterward, Papa actually went inside the box.  I was wondering what he was doing inside of the box, but a moment later I discovered what it was.

Papa Bluebird stayed inside the box for a short time and then exited from the box, flying away to hunt for another insect.  The photo below shows him flying from the box.  As to what Papa had been doing inside the box, the answer is shown in the photo.

If you look closely at the photo, you will see that Papa had something white in his beak.

Something white?  It was actually a form of a diaper.  It is called a “fecal sac” and is from one of the baby Bluebirds.  When the babies reach a certain age, it becomes the job of the parents to remove these sacs from the nest.

A parent will take the sac from the nest box and fly far away from the box.  The parent will drop the sac in a place where predators will not be able to associate the scent of the sac with the location of the nest box.  And that is what Papa Bluebird did.  I watched him fly across the adjacent field and out of sight with the sac still in his beak.

Technical Section

Estimating Eastern Bluebirds’ hatching dates is based on observations of the nest and certain knowledge of Bluebird behavior and breeding patterns.  It is necessary to know how many eggs are laid and when the female finishes laying them.  Here are my observations:

Afternoon of June 17th – no eggs in nest
Afternoon of June 21st – four eggs in nest
Afternoon of June 29th – four eggs in nest

Ornithological observations have shown that, once a female Bluebird starts laying eggs, she will lay one egg each morning.  This is also true of many other birds.  Bluebirds tend to lay their eggs well after sunrise, often between 8 and 10 a.m.

Also from observations, it is known that the female will usually start incubating her eggs either on the day that she lays her last egg or on the previous day.

Since no eggs were in the nest on the afternoon of June 17^th, the female had not yet laid any eggs.  However, on June 21^st there were four eggs in the nest, indicating that she had laid her first egg on June 18^th, her second on June 19^th, her third on June 20^th, and her fourth on June 21^st.

Since there were still only four eggs in the nest on June 29^th, the female stopped laying after she laid her last egg on June 21^st.  She therefore began incubating her eggs either on June 21^st or on June 20^th. 

For the purpose of my calculation, I assumed that the female began incubating on June 21st. That is because I did not notice the female peeking her head out of the nest box prior to the morning of June 21st. Peeking her head out of the box would have indicated that she had been in the box all night keeping the eggs warm. Instead, early each morning prior to June 21st, between about 6 and 7 a.m., I observed the male landing on top of the box, the female flying from the fence to the top of the box to join him, after which the male would enter the box with the female following him. The male would then fly out of the box, leaving the female inside. I interpreted this behavior as the male escorting the female inside the box to make sure it was safe to lay an egg.

Since the average incubation period for Eastern Bluebirds is fourteen days, I assumed that the eggs began hatching on July 5^th, which was fourteen days from June 21^st.

Based on the assumption that the oldest baby was ten days old on July 15th, I estimate that babies will start fledging (leaving the nest) sometime around July 23rd. This is based on the average fledging date for Eastern Bluebirds being the date when they are eighteen days old. However, this can vary up to twenty-one days. On the other hand, the material that I have read about Eastern Bluebird nesting in this region of the U.S. has indicated an average of 18 days.

Stay tuned to discover the fate of the babies!  And please pray with me that they will be safe once they leave the nest.  To follow this blog, you can enter your email address on the upper right of the page.

 

If you have found this story interesting, you might want to check out my book, Bonding with the Barn Swallows.  Its 117 photos include closeups of the baby Barn Swallows that were hatched on my porch during 2011 and 2012.  There are also photos of the parent swallows guarding the nest and feeding their young.  As an extra bonus, the book includes photos of five different juvenile Barn Swallows, just ten days after fledging.  You will be amazed at their varied markings.  The book describes how one special male Barn Swallow communicated to me by his body language on the utility wire and how, only two days later, I discovered what he was trying to tell me.  To find out more about the book and read a preview, just click on the image to the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluebird Egg Incubation in Progress!

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

Wonderful news!  The female Eastern Bluebird is still incubating her eggs.  That's a good thing because our temperatures have been cool for the last couple of days.

This morning, from a distance of about 20 feet (6 meters), I was trying to photograph the nest box with the female Bluebird inside.  Suddenly, unbeknownst to me while I was pressing the shutter, the male Bluebird landed on the top of the box with a worm in his beak!  If you look carefully at the photo on the upper right, you might be able to see a hint of the female Bluebird's head inside the box.

Apparently, the male Bluebird trusts me.  This does not overly surprise me because he often stations himself in one spot and watches me for quite a long time.  The other day, he perched on the fence and observed me the whole time while I was refilling the bird feeders.

Below is a close-up of the male Bluebird holding the worm.  In the background you can see blooms on a mimosa tree.

The male Bluebird had not flown to the box just to feed himself.  As the photo on the right shows, he flew to the entrance hole of the box and proceeded to feed his mate, who was still inside the box.

So far, so good!  I am hoping that this nesting attempt will be successful without the female abandoning her eggs as the first female did.

I do not know how many eggs are currently in the nest, but on Sunday, June 21st, there were four eggs.  Once I feel that it is safe to check the inside of the box without scaring the female Bluebird away, I will find out how many eggs she has laid.  From that information, and assuming that she laid one egg per morning (as is usually the case), I should be able to calculate approximately when the eggs should start hatching.

A female Bluebird is said to begin full-time incubation of her eggs either on the day she lays her last egg or on the preceding day.  So, once I find out how many eggs are currently in the nest, I can calculate the approximate date on which the eggs should begin to hatch.  In the following paragraphs I shall describe how this calculation is performed.

For instance, if I find that there are currently five eggs in the nest, knowing that the female laid her fourth egg on June 21st, and assuming that she laid one egg on each successive morning, I can assume that she laid her last egg on the morning of June 22nd.  If there are six eggs currently in the nest, the assumption would be that she laid her last egg on June 23rd.  The average number of eggs in a Bluebird clutch is five, but that number can sometimes be as high as seven.

In the former case (if there are five eggs currently in the nest), the female would have begun incubating her eggs either on June 22nd or on the preceding day.  In the latter case (six eggs currently in the nest), the female would have begun incubating either on June 23rd or on the preceding day.

The final bit of knowledge required in order to estimate the hatching date is that the average incubation period for Eastern Bluebirds is fourteen to fifteen days.  Therefore, assuming that there are no more than six eggs currently in the nest, the eggs should begin hatching sometime between July 5th and July 8th.

To the right is a photo of what Eastern Bluebird eggs look like.  I took this photo on June 6th after the first female had abandoned the nest.  She had not been in the area or inside the nest box for several days.  The eggs were due to hatch soon, but she had not incubated them.  These eggs disappeared within a few days after the new female arrived on June 12th.  My assumption at this point is that the new female removed them.

All of the eggs in a Bluebird clutch are said to hatch within one or two days of each other.  Once the hatching date(s) are known, the ages of the nestlings can be calculated, and that is the most important thing to know in the monitoring of Bluebird boxes.

It is important to be able to track the ages of the nestlings in order to avoid opening the box when the chicks are twelve or more days old.  Opening the box during this time period can cause the premature fledging of one or more of the chicks, which could result in their demise.

All for now!  You can follow this blog by entering your email address in the upper right corner of the top of this page.

If you have found this story interesting, you might want to check out my book, Bonding with the Barn Swallows.  Its 117 photos include closeups of the baby Barn Swallows that were hatched on my porch during 2011 and 2012.  There are also photos of the parent swallows guarding the nest and feeding their young.  As an extra bonus, the book includes photos of five different juvenile Barn Swallows, just ten days after fledging.  You will be amazed at their varied markings.  The book describes how one special male Barn Swallow communicated to me by his body language on the utility wire and how, only two days later, I discovered what he was trying to tell me.  To find out more about the book and read a preview, just click on the image to the right. 

Lady Bluebird is doing fine ...

Text and photos © 2015 Adele Wilson, author of Bonding with the Barn Swallows

As far as I can tell, the new female Bluebird who arrived on the scene on June 12th is doing fine.  I am calling her "Lady Bluebird" because she seems so sophisticated and vigilant.  To the right is a photo that I took of her on the evening of June 14th.

Lady Bluebird is diligently incubating her eggs now.  I sometimes see her in the mornings peeking out of the nest box hole.  The incubation period is critical for female Bluebirds because they like their privacy and do not like being disturbed.  So, when I go out in the yard to refill the bird feeders, I try to tiptoe past her box and pretend that I don't see her inside.

Lady Bluebird's mate (I still call him "Mr. Bluebird"), also seems to be doing fine.  He has been hanging around since May 10th, the date that he and his previous mate took over the first nest box.  Poor little fellow!  He's been through so much, losing his first mate, who ended up abandoning the nest.

Mr. Bluebird seems to be a little more attentive to Lady Bluebird than he was to his previous mate.  He had also been busy guarding his territory, including both his own nest box and the now-empty second box.  He chases House Sparrows from the second box when he sees them, but I don't know if he will succeed in preventing the sparrows from nesting there.

The photo to the left shows Mr. and Lady Bluebird guarding their box on the morning of June 22nd.  Mr. Bluebird is the more brightly colored bird on the left, while Lady Bluebird is on the right.  Mother Nature gives the female Bluebird subtler colors to help guard against their becoming easy prey for cats, racoons, and larger birds.

Just a few minutes before I took this photo, Mr. and Lady Bluebird were guarding the second box.  The photo below shows them around that box.

In the meantime, we now quite a number of swallows flying around -- three different species in all, including Barn Swallows, the birds I wrote about in my book.  The other morning, all three species were flying above the yard.

The few Barn Swallows that arrived in April have now fledged their first broods of the season.  It is easy to recognize the juvenile Barn Swallows flying high in the air because they are slightly smaller than the adults and must flap their wings more rapidly.

To the right are some juvenile Barn Swallows whom I was able to photograph on June 22nd.  Although their wings are already rather long, their tail feathers have not yet grown to the adult length.

Tree Swallows comprise the second species that was present the other morning.  Six Tree Swallows were flying around the second nest box, the box inside which their eggs went missing about a week or so ago.  It was quite a decision for me to remove their nest and clean the box after I discovered their eggs to be gone, but a major factor was that the pair of Tree Swallows were no longer hanging around the box.  To see photos of Tree Swallows, you can go to my post of May 17th.

I thought that removing the nest in the second box would help deter House Sparrows from nesting in the box, but, judging from what I observed this morning, I might be incorrect about that.  I observed a pair of sparrows perching near the box, and the male even went inside the box and came out again.

The third species of swallow that was around the other morning was the Cliff Swallow.  To the left is a rare photo of a Cliff Swallow that I shot in 2014.

The same morning when I spotted the Barn and Tree Swallows flying around, three Cliff Swallows flew up to my porch nest.  House Sparrows are currently using that nest, but the nest is actually a Cliff Swallow nest.  It was a Barn Swallow nest until July 2013, when Cliff Swallows arrived and remodeled it.  The nest was used by Cliff Swallows in both 2013 and 2014.  More about this in a future post.






If you have enjoyed these photos, you might want to check out the 117 photos in my book, Bonding with the Barn Swallows.  Many of them show close-ups of the baby Barn Swallows that were hatched on my porch during 2011 and 2012.  There are also photos of the parent swallows guarding the nest and feeding their young.  As an extra bonus, the book includes photos of five different juvenile Barn Swallows, just ten days after fledging.  You will be amazed at their varied markings.  The book describes how one special male Barn Swallow communicated to me by his body language on the utility wire and how, only two days later, I discovered what he was trying to tell me.  The book is available by clicking on the image to the right.