Barn Swallows

[browndog]

Yeah I know..... I am stuck on the barn swallow thing. The older I get, the more appreciation I have for how the critters operate/survive. I can only imagine how many trips it takes to construct a nest. I have two cams set up on new "construction sites" and it is amazing to me the number of trips(vids) I have of the parents building these nests. I am getting softer in my old age and am enjoying the simpler things in life.

This was a brand new nest as of yesterday afternoon.

 

[Tap]

One of my favorite things about summer is when I'm mowing the lawn or running the brush hog and flocks of Barn Swallows fly circles around and around me as they gobble up the bugs in the air. They are the most graceful fliers. I definitely have a soft spot for them.

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[Tree Spud]

Early summer mornings are great when I have about 25-30 of them flying around the back of our barn. They are eating a ton of insects taking them back to their nests under the eves and feeding the chicks.

 

[Bill]

Don't know why but this year when I moved the clover and rolled the rye no swallows!
I noticed their absence right away.. No clue why.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Love barn swallows, though we see them mainly in the spring as they migrate through our place heading a bit further north.

As for Tap's comment on one of his favorite things being to see them feed when on the tractor, have the EXACT same feeling towards swallow-tail kites. They summer around us and words won't do justice to their graceful flight AND the acrobatic abilities that the scissor tail gives them. Typically have 3 or 4 that will fly circles over the tractor taking turns swooping down to pick off grasshoppers flying out of the grass, and the kites can turn on a dime adjusting to capture them.

Cattle egret are fun to watch too, but in a totally different way... for those that don't have them, big groups (20 to 30) of them fly around following the tractor but mainly hunt running around like chickens picking prey out of the grass.

 

[sagittarius]

The more insect eating birds around the house/foodplots the better. Barn swallows, house swallows, bluebirds are all good. Then the wrens keeping the worms off the apple trees.

 

[browndog]

One of my favorite things about summer is when I'm mowing the lawn or running the brush hog and flocks of Barn Swallows fly circles around and around me as they gobble up the bugs in the air. They are the most graceful fliers. I definitely have a soft spot for them.

Yep, I love listening to their chatter too when the are perched nearby. It is something to watch them swooping in and out of the barn, especially through some of the smaller openings....and with some serious speed.

 

[John-W-WI]

The older I get, the more appreciation I have for how the critters operate/survive.

Your swallow talk has got me thinking about them a lot this year.

I haven't figured out how yet, but I'm going to promote them nesting near our new building site. I've googled it a little, but haven't found what I'm looking for.

I'm thinking about elevating some kind of wood structure that would be ideal for them nesting. I'll figure it out sooner or later (I want them, but not nesting on my buildings if I can help it).

-John

 

[browndog]

Sounds like a grea idea John! Maybe we will need to start another thread to post stucture ideas?
When the time comes, I am going to try to salvage some of the floor joist beams that they are using now and incorporate them into a structure. There is a 1/2"-3/4" conduit that is runs on the bottom side of the beams and they like to build on that. I will post a pic of that later.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Typically in late summer we have large "swarms" of swallows in the evenings flying around eating bugs. We also have quite a few wrens at the farm. They are loud for a tiny bird. Almost every time you see one though it has a bug in its beak. Speaking of bug killers in action one of coolest things I have seen was a couple of summers ago we had a sudden influx of dragon flies for about a week. You could spend a lot of time watching them hunting small flying insects like skeeters. Tried to film it but the subject matter was too small for the camera I had available.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

While not barn swallows, my purple martins are related. I set up gourds for them every year.
I do have one nest of barn swallows under the porch at least.

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[Bill]

Old trail cam pic of a killer doing his thing.

 

[swat1018]

I have a bunch in my old building at the farm. A buddy and I fished till dark on a pond bank before we noticed the first mosquito. Not sure why, but can't help to think the swallows are part of it.

 

[Tap]

This has been an enjoyable thread.
Thanks browndog for starting it.

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[Tree Spud]

This has been an enjoyable thread.
Thanks browndog for starting it.

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I agree. Sometimes we focus on one thing here and the we step back and see what nature offers us ... good stuff, I never grow tired of the barn swallow ballet!

 

[browndog]

I have a bunch in my old building at the farm. A buddy and I fished till dark on a pond bank before we noticed the first mosquito. Not sure why, but can't help to think the swallows are part of it.

I have read that a single barn swallow can eat up to 850 insects each day and 25,000 each month. Who knows how many skeeters they eat...I have quite a few of swallows here.
I was mowing yesterday evening and the swallows were swooping/dive bombing everywhere around me. I was paying more attention to them instead of where I was going. They were scooping up insects right and left.

 

[browndog]

This has been an enjoyable thread.
Thanks browndog for starting it.

This was all started because of my barn having to come down. To me, the barn is some sort of habitat and home to some beneficial critters.

 

[Tap]

Since we're talking about cool summer time birds, I'll add another favorite of mine...Eastern Peewee. They always make a nest or 2 somewhere on our house. They are great parents and have to be the hardest working birds out there. They are constantly fluttering around the yard catching bugs and bringing them back to the nest. Gotta love those bug killers!

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[Tree Spud]

To show you the delicate and minute nature of these critters, here is an egg that dropped on my barn drive after I believe the chick hatched. The item on the right is a orange soda bottle cap .

 

[browndog]

I am always impressed with the nests they build. One has some red fiber woven in the mud and I was like, where the hell did that come from? Then I see an old red blanket laying in the barn that matched perfectly. Most of the nests lately have many lines in them, almost like fishing lines but they are brown? There are horses across the road and I am wondering of they are from horse tails?
It has me stumped.