- Location
- Limousin, France
Just sat eating fish and chips ,looking out the windows and saw the 1st one of the year.
Spring time!
Spring time!
Swallows 2017
- Thread starter le bon paysan
- Start date
spin cycle
Member
- Location
- north norfolk
always smile when they arrive
Who's doing fish and chips in haute v ?
- Location
- Limousin, France
Mrs LBP with beer batter too!
Acornworm
Member
- Location
- the edge of sanity
Just arrived in grey North Cornwall,first one this morning,later than usual................presumably due to Brexit
Farmer996
Member
- Location
- North East
I'm hoping they find somewhere else to go this year. They nest under the eaves of the house and made a bigger than normal mess last year. It took me a whole day to clean it. Plus they torment the cat. I had someone round this morning wanting to shoot rabbits, pigeons, rats, etc. I told him the biggest pests we have are swallows. Not that I'd want them shot. Just saying they're a pain.
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- Location
- Limousin, France
Heard my 1st cuckoo this afternoon.
Minesapint
Member
- Location
- Oxon
You should feel privileged to have them. We have 70+ Housemartin nests, and yes, the mess is bad, but its only for a short while, and love having them here. Looking forward to the first arrival of the year.
Lazy Sod
Member
- Location
- Warminster Wiltshire
If they are nesting under the eaves, the are not swallows, but house martins. Swallows normally nest in the buildings.
Farmer996
Member
- Location
- North East
They are definitely swallows. They also nest in the stables and barn (mess all over the tractors). The eaves on the house are quite deep because there's no soffit board. It's pretty impossible to block them so I'll have to put up with it until I can afford a new roof. They nest twice in a season so the mess lasts for 6 months. Maybe I am in a minority but I dread them coming.
- Location
- Cirencester
Last year I had some nesting under the eves and they were definitely swallows, right by the bedroom, you could hear them chattering away early mornings and the occasional ruckus in the night. Loved it, they can make as much mess as they like, they are most welcome here!
rosbif
Member
- Location
- 16500 France
Always looking out for them. The earliest here was 15th March and this year about the 22 ish. I did hear a cuckoo yesterday for the first time this year.
ThickEric
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
Although I have not seen a reel-to-reel tape recorder in decades, I woke up last summer convinced that one was in our bedroom and had reached the end of the spool, the tape end flicking round and round until someone could turn it off.
By the time I realised the noise was actually coming from the wings of a baby swallow, trying to get back out of the window above our heads, I had already made 2 mistakes.
a) Looked up.
b) Left my mouth slightly open.
My wife laughed, with totally unsympathetic comments about alternative ways to derive protein from insects. She soon stopped when she saw the state of our duvet cover.
By the time I realised the noise was actually coming from the wings of a baby swallow, trying to get back out of the window above our heads, I had already made 2 mistakes.
a) Looked up.
b) Left my mouth slightly open.
My wife laughed, with totally unsympathetic comments about alternative ways to derive protein from insects. She soon stopped when she saw the state of our duvet cover.
Old McDonald
Member
- Location
- Harray, Orkney
I heard the first here too. Obviously yours have travelled a lot further.
We have Crag Martins all year round, few Sandmartins, plenty of House Martins, never seen a Red-rumped Swallow that I know of, but thye are here, and remarkably we have extremely few Hirundo rustica commonly known as Swallow. Only the red-rumped is in the same family.
I have never seen a Swallow nest under eaves, and I know they normally nest in buildings as you say. I would not go so far as to say it does not happen, so I believe the two posters who say they had Swallows nesting under their eaves.
I do not profess to be an "expert" either, although I am interested in such things.
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
Fantastic to hear of that many housemartins, we get loads of swallows but no martins
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
Nearly all our swallows nest in the stables but there have been a couple of nests under generous eaves in the last few years, Definitely swallows as we get no martins
not here yet,when hopefully they do get here, they gonna think wtf. ....
RushesToo
Member
- Location
- Fingringhoe
@Farmer996 If this is a problem for you, I think many others would take it in exchange for TB, blackgrass or cragrats. Relax a little.
Old McDonald
Member
- Location
- Harray, Orkney
As I posted, I quite accept that they do nest under eaves. Just because I have not seen it does not mean that it does not occur. Between posting earlier and coming back to the thread I looked at a couple of my bird books and they say exactly what @Lazy Sod posted - swallows "normally" nest in buildings. That leaves plenty of options for those that do not want to follow the norm.
Slightly off topic,but given the mix of swallow type birds we have here I have often wondered if they interbreed in a similar way to the different wagtail species.