Swallow

[John Parry]

Not too common - they don't often perch. Never seen a house martin perching at all...

Think I still had the flash on the digital turned on because he leapt into action as I took the shot, and flew into the door of the pub. There were only 3 windows and the open door. He got it right at the fourth attempt!



Regards - John

[Deleted]

Looks just like the variety of barn swallow we have here. We had several trying to nest on our patio a few weeks ago. They simply won't give up, no matter what you do. We had fake owls and strips of tin foil hanging all over the place to try to scare them off. I won't go into how we finally got them to leave as I feel bad about the action I had to take--albeit unintentional.

[GeneW]

John, they strongly resemble the barn swallows we have here in eastern Canada. Ours perch on wires, fences, and guywires on boats. They build nests of mud under the bridges where I walk. I've seen at least three pair sitting on nests this spring. I love watching them swoop over the river, catching insects in mid-air.

Gene

[John Parry]

Hard to make out here, but this guy has a bright red throat. I was photographing house martins the other day (on film). The difference between the nests is that house martins make a long cone, while swallows make a shallow cup. Both are made of mud (in this country anyway - in China, swallows make theirs out of spit, which is where birds nest soup comes from). I want to try to photograph some swifts, but I've no idea what their nests are like or where to find them.

One interesting point - global warming. In the North of England, swallows and house martins always made their nests on south facing walls. They nest on easterly facing walls now. Makes a difference when you are trying to capture them in flight - not as much light on an east facing wall, so you can't push up the shutter speed as much to 'freeze' them. Oh well - I'll wait and see how the film turns out!

Regards - John

[Deleted]

I think that type of barn swallow is found in Europe and North and South America--not sure about asia. Some of the swallows we have here supposedly migrate as far south as Argentina every winter.

[John Parry]

Ours go to South Africa (6000 miles). Nice to think that they come home to nest though.

Was looking up swifts on Google. Seems they never touch down at all except to lay their eggs. They just coast on the upstreams at night. and apparently drink by scooping water from pools. I've seen that, and never realised that was what was happening - I thought they were just skimming the water too low while hunting midges. Going to try to photograph a swift having a drink now!

Regards - John

[Randy]

I have a big metal windmill in my backyard, and one did himself in the other day when he hit the blades, it was windy.

[Deleted]

What happened with ours was they kept flying into the patio and no matter how often we shooed them out, they came back to try to attach a mud nest up under our eaves.

One day I was out on the pation and there were about six of them that kept swooping in. Finall I went in the garage a got a really cheap Daisy air rifle I bought maybe 30 years ago. Recently I used it to try to scare some crows out of our trees. I hit one and he just looked at me and kept cawing. Sooo, I figured I would take a shot at one of the swallows and maybe they would take the hit. The chances of me getting close enough to hit one was about one in a milling, not to mention that they can probably fly faster than a BB.

Just as I came back out on the patio, a pair of swallows swooped in and perched on a metal frame we hang flower pots from. The nearest was a good 20 feet away. I cocked the air rifle figuring that activity would scare 'em off. It didn't. I slowly raised the Daisy. Any type of activity like that normally makes them flee. It didn't.
The Daisy doesn't have anything you could really call a sight so I just looked down the top of the barrel. I figured the BB would come close enough that when it hit the wall behind the swallow he would hightail it.
As I squeezed the trigger the swallow sort of cocked his head to one side and looked at me. . .

The BB gin went "thump". That was followed a split scond later by the sound of the BB hitting something. I don't think the swallow ever knew what hit him. If I shot at something that small, that far away 100 times, I would miss it 99 times. Apparently it was that swallow's time.

I felt really bad about the whole thing. If I could choose a bird to be it would be a swallow because of their speed and agility. And I always have admired their migration. I won't be shooting at any more swallows with even a BB gun.

On the other hand, when the one swallow dropped like a rock the rest of them flew away and have not been seen since. I guess they can take a hint.

[John Parry]

Only one question Wayne

Why did you want rid of them so badly? OK, I know they crap beneath the nests, but don't they cheer you up?

Here, you're allowed to 'discourage' them from starting a nest - chickenwire under the eaves, but to interfere with nesting birds is not allowed.

I just wish I had some. Or bats. All I get is wasps!

Regards - John

[Deleted]

John:

A few years ago we were gone for a week and when we returned a pair had built a mud nest up under the eaves in the patio. Our patio actually is a courtyard in the center of the house and anyone coming and going has to pass through it. The swallows not only were crapping in the patio but started flying at the heads of us and visitors and I was forced to remove the nest. Personally I wouldn't mind if they wanted to build a nest under the eaves at the back of the house (Sara would mint, however) but they only seem interested in the courtyard. I really enjoy watching the ones that nest under a bridge near where I work.

[John Parry]

Aaaah! A woman thing! My next door neighbour hated the idea of the bats roosting in her eaves. Didn't matter how much I explained that they were disease free and totally harmless. She just didn't like the idea. She had the biggest nursery roost for miles around, although they were only pipistrelles. About 300 of them at the last count. Hard things to photograph!

You can get 3 years in jail for disturbing them though (same for nesting birds). Not sure what you'd get for disturbing them at the moment - our jails are full!

Regards - John