Swallows in 2010 Arrivals, nesting and departures

Tarsna

lol.....now your trying to make me jelous:D

Id like to go out with my camera taking photos of seabirds and waders..........but im from Tipperary....can anyone tell me of a good place to get photo chances....nearish to Tipp

E39MSport

Tarsna wrote: »

My Swallows are back......lets hope they start nesting soon


Has anyone else got theres nesting yet?

I thought mine were back but they appear to be locals rather than my previous residents. I'm a bit worried for them now. Getting late.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

E39MSport wrote: »

I thought mine were back but they appear to be locals rather than my previous residents. I'm a bit worried for them now. Getting late.

Honestly confused here

What do you mean by "locals"?

E39MSport

Daisy Better Ballistics wrote: »

Honestly confused here

What do you mean by "locals"?

The one's from my nearest neighbour

He has a barn and I notice them entering and leaving it. I know their usual hunting flightpath. In fact, I can nearly identify individuals/couples based on the repeated flight paths they make.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Aaaah! I thought you had found some that didn't migrate!:p

Thanks for explaining to a poor simpleton.

ThunderCat

Saw 7 or 8 Swallows/Swifts catching flys and midgees etc. off the surface of a pond the other evening. They have it down to a tee and im sure they were having great sucess even though my eyes wernt quick enough to follow them properly. The agility they have to turn sharply at the waters edge to turn around and have another go is astonishing. Lovely to watch. They were tiny by the way - Is it possible that the new batch of swallows/swifts are fledged already or was that the adults that I saw?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

At this time of year it would still be mostly adults. Just a general note: newly fledged birds are not normally much smaller than adults.

E39MSport

Mine finally came back over the weekend

Very, very happy to see them.

Feargal as Luimneach

Last year put up nest boxes in my garden shed. Sawed a bit of the door off so they could get in. But unfortunately my cat scared them off. Put up cut gorse bushes around the door and on door so cat can't get in this year. No swallows have taken to it yet.. Any swallow experts know whether it's too late for any swallows to take up residence

Mountainsandh

Hi Tarnsa, don't know about Waders and seabirds specifically, but you know there's a great "reserve" in Clonmel, Knocklofty ? Pretty lake, swans and ducks and other protected species there. Take the turn right across from the new Park Hotel, going towards St Patrick's well. Lake is second turn on the left.

E39MSport

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Last year put up nest boxes in my garden shed. Sawed a bit of the door off so they could get in. But unfortunately my cat scared them off. Put up cut gorse bushes around the door and on door so cat can't get in this year. No swallows have taken to it yet.. Any swallow experts know whether it's too late for any swallows to take up residence

No expert but I'd say your in with a chance. I saw plenty of swallows this morning checking out sites in a wood shed where I'm currently staying.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Last year put up nest boxes in my garden shed. Sawed a bit of the door off so they could get in. But unfortunately my cat scared them off. Put up cut gorse bushes around the door and on door so cat can't get in this year. No swallows have taken to it yet.. Any swallow experts know whether it's too late for any swallows to take up residence

Plenty of time yet!

homolumo

For the last two weeks the swallows have been congregating around the house and garden. Numbers seem to be growing, started off with around 12 now up to about 30-40. A great sight seeing them flying around in such numbers. I thought it would be too early to be gathering together. This is the first year that this has happened but maybe it is because there are no nesting swallows in our shed this year (thanks to our cat I think)

Mothman

During the past hour a steady stream of groups of swallows heading south.
Counted about 850 in all (my counting could be very suspect)
No martins seen or heard though I wasn't using bins

Morganna

havent seen any swallows here for the last two days.Three days ago a good few.To early yet for them to go,at least a month to early.....Will look again see if they around....

Mothman

Another group of about 80 moving south...
I've never observed such a movement before. To qualify this, I'm not a birdwatcher so have not put myself in position to observe such movements/migrations.

And Morganna, Swallows are leaving, but some are still nesting and hence will be plenty around for most of September

snaps

Same here, there are barely any around these last few days!

Black Swan

San Juan Capistrano swallows are black with white breasts.

Feargal as Luimneach

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

San Juan Capistrano swallows are black with white breasts.

Different species of swallow.

StephenHendry

we've a swallows nest at home , they are above our hall door. delighted to have them, we have house martins nesting at the eave of our roof as well but its the first time we've had the swallows

Morganna

The swallows are here today...a good few of them flying round and calling to each other ,delighted to see them,they had there first brood sometime ago,didnt see any for two days and today they back.....

snaps

Morganna wrote: »

The swallows are here today...a good few of them flying round and calling to each other ,delighted to see them,they had there first brood sometime ago,didnt see any for two days and today they back.....

Possibly swallows/birds heading south?

ppink

most of the swallows here are gone already! there are only 6 left this evening, with about 50+ gone.
do they usually go this early?
is there anywhere online to track their migration?

mgwhelan

there's still a nest with chicks on our farm, is'nt it a bit late for them to be strong enough to head back to africa

jwshooter

hundreds over and on my house at the moment ,its sad to see them go .the moon is full so go they must .

Morganna

there where a good few here today,they dont usually leave till mid september do they ?

Durnish

New swallow fledglings in the barn yesterday. Magpies waiting outside. Earlier this month there were a lot of young swallows flying about but seem to be gone now.

Here's the question, do they go back to Africa with a parent? Is there a continuous line of swallows whose ancestral booleying grounds are in Portnoo and whose winter quarters are somewhere specific in sub Saharan Africa?

E39MSport

I've been seeing huge numbers of them about these fine days.

They congregate on phone lines then take off and feed/play for a bit then back to the wires.

snaps

yes they still seem to be around, perhaps the ones with young?

E39MSport

snaps wrote: »

yes they still seem to be around, perhaps the ones with young?

Yeah - majority are young birds around me. They are very playful on the wing. A joy to watch.