# 4 fledgling barn swallows almost ready to leave the nest



## greybeard (May 16, 2017)

And I am glad. Little critters are hiking their butts up on the side and pooping all over my porch deck. Parents come swooping in at breakneck speed with their lunch. I dunno how the offspring know parent is coming, but they start squawking just a couple seconds before arrival.  Tried to get a good pic of momma/papa feeding them but that takes less time than my camera can focus, but I did barely get one of her leaving. I had a game cam set up this morning, but the pics didn't show much. It's minimum delay is 2 seconds and feeding is over by that time. They'll build in the same place next year or use the same nest, but I'll probably wash it down with the powerwasher and make them build elsewhere.

(yes, I know..they can become a huge nuisance but this year, they get to stay)


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## Hens and Roos (May 16, 2017)

they build on our house every year, usually above a window or our porch door, this year they are trying hard to build on one of our screens...


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## greybeard (May 16, 2017)

My uncle used to have 20-30 of them on his house. Got to where he couldn't open the back door. 
I have 2 more nests up near the peak of my house under the eaves, and they don't bother me. They do eat lots and lots of insects.


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## Hens and Roos (May 16, 2017)

they do eat insects- when we cut grass they are always flying around us.  I don't mind them at all!


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## Mike CHS (May 16, 2017)

I'm not sure where they live but when I'm cutting grass they are all over.


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## Latestarter (May 16, 2017)

I have a nest with I believe 3 young in it now and it's the second brood, right above my back door. It's the door I always use and it hasn't stopped them. The parents don't hang around when I open  the door to go in/out though (unless it's later at night). There are several other nests on the house as well, but don't believe they got used this year. Too bad, the more swallows I have around the better I like it. I don't mind the poop... it washes off.


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## Bruce (May 21, 2017)

SECOND brood??? Wow. We get only one a year and although one pair makes a nest on a plastic light fixture box up near the ceiling in the lower part of the barn where the chickens and alpacas are, by their coloring they look to be tree swallows, not barn swallows. The set that fledged 5 years ago did it on July 4th, while I was working on converting the nearby stall to a coop. Last year it seems all the swallows fledged at the same time. There were suddenly over a dozen little ones on the telephone wire near the house one day. Then they go wherever it is that they go but like @greybeard said, they eat a lot of insects. Love having them around and watching their aerial skills while eating on the wing.


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## greybeard (May 21, 2017)

One of them left the nest yesterday...hopped down on the top of the door sill and sat there for a couple of hours but returned to the nest when the squall line came thru a couple hours later. They should all vacate by the end of this week.


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## Latestarter (May 21, 2017)

Yeah, I've been able to count heads and there are actually 5 of them in that little nest... Doesn't seem like there's room for all of them but I can count fuzzy heads and beaks sticking up whenever mom or dad are near. Wonder if they'll go for a "three-peat"? We have plenty of insects and it's still way early in the year considering. Looking at them closer, they aren't barn swallows as they don't have the chevron tail... It's flat. They aren't the same bright blue hue either.


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