Swallow "invasion"

jones

Hi folks,

Funny one but in the last few weeks my house (standalone rural) has attracted no less than 12 swallows all trying to build nests are various points. We normally get a lot of birds around the house, which I like, but this year the sheer number of swallows is causing issues. They appear to be trying to build nests on every downpipe or nook/ cranny around the house. Problem is I've a new baby and one of the favourite places to start is the downpipe beside the baby's room which of course has a vent right beside where the swallows sit. The noise from such small creatures is surprisingly loud and would wake me up and I'm not a light sleeper.

The nests they start at the downpipes keep falling (they have never built there before and it's an odd place for them as they move in the wind sightly) basically the house is constantly being circled by these swallows almost menacingly ðŸ˜.

Is there anyway to discourage the swallows from the downpipes? I don't mind if they build at the garage which is where they normally go but this year is different for whatever reason.

Thanks for any feedback

Frogeye

Same problem. No solution really other than a lenght of timber and knocking them down.

House is 3 years old. First summer they built one nest by a window in a room we weren't using . I left it alone. Cleared away all the sh*t from the window cill when they aware gone and cleaned the window. they came back last year. Same story.

This year I decided to take it down and removed it in April before they came back. Then all their mates landed on and start putting the foundations into nearly all the upstairs windows and over a picture window we have. I got a 5 metre length of 4 x 2 and started knocking them down before they got too far along.

After hearing how the little bird has flown nearly 10000k to get to my
house I conceded one and let them rebuild the one I knocked so there are two. I'm knocking the rest that I can reach. I think there is one more way up upon the apex for the roof but I cant reach it.

So my suggestion to you is to knock ones that cause you a problem and learn to live with the rest....

PS there are meshes and screens you can get that might help you but I'm sticking with the 4*2.

jones

Cheers Frogeye i feel your pain. I actually like them being around but this year is ridiculous combined with new baby and the noise at 5am each morning and droppings on windowsils, cars etc is constant. I like having wildlife around but its a bit much this year. I'm sure its no coincidence there are so many this summer after COVID - cleaner skys or something i dont know. The weird thing is there are two houses either side of mine 20 metres either side and they dont seem to go to them at all from what i can see. We are here 10+ years and have never seen this number of them.

The nests on the downpipes hardly need any encouragement to fall they are built on very shaky ground, literally, but if i give the pipe a little knock i'm sure the beginings of the nest will be on the ground. I'm hoping this will discourage them to go find a more permanent home but they just keep starting these multiple nests in the same places constantly. This has been going on for weeks i assumed after the first few 'restarts' they would of gone elsewhere. Determined buggers

Bicyclette

Could you put up with them this summer and then put deterrents in over the winter? Swallows are a protected species:

"Swallows nests, eggs and chicks are protected under the Wildlife Act 1976 and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and European-level legislation. The penalties for tampering with swallows or disturbing their active nests consists of heavy fines and even imprisonment."

jones

Bicyclette wrote: »

Could you put up with them this summer and then put deterrents in over the winter? Swallows are a protected species:

"Swallows nests, eggs and chicks are protected under the Wildlife Act 1976 and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and European-level legislation. The penalties for tampering with swallows or disturbing their active nests consists of heavy fines and even imprisonment."

I would definitely put up with 1 nest as i said i quite like birds being around the house but 12 nests? The funny thing this year is they are mainly building nests in ridiculous places that will never withstand a windy day as i said the downpipe beginings of nests are constantly falling when there's a wind.

overshoot

Parents house has dashed walls and they would build off corners onto the eaves... Painting on rapeseed oil puts them off, at least for the year, although does discolour it

mrcheez

a possible solution is to attach bird spikes to the top of the pipes?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Defender-Plastic-Bird-Spikes-Control/dp/B07929GHB4/

I use these to deter magpies and work a treat.. you can break off individual spikes and glue them wherever you need using Tec7 or similar

Mimon

Bicyclette wrote: »

Could you put up with them this summer and then put deterrents in over the winter? Swallows are a protected species:

"Swallows nests, eggs and chicks are protected under the Wildlife Act 1976 and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and European-level legislation. The penalties for tampering with swallows or disturbing their active nests consists of heavy fines and even imprisonment."

How do you interpret active nest here? Is it fair game until there are eggs in it or when they start building is it an active nest. I presume the former?

Getting the house painted and have a House Marten nest at the apex, painter offered to take it down before they came back but i said leave it.

jones

I'd interpret an active nest as a fully built one which they are living in and possibly has eggs but i could be wrong.

whippet

When I moved in to my house about 10 years ago a local asked me how many nests I had - it was a pointed question - more or less telling me that he would know if I tampered with them.

Some years are worse than other - this year isn't to bad - last year I had 7 on my back wall; 1 in an old shed and two at the front of the house. The amount of ****e that they generated was crazy and the cars spent the summer covered in crap.

There was one nest directly beside my home office window and it was impossible to open the window due to noise.

on a positive note - sitting in the back garden at dusk with a pot of tea watching them in action is hypnotic

jones

I agree they are very hypnotic flying around the garden that's how i starting checking around the house to see where they were building as suddenly there were 12 of the flying fast and low around the garden lovely sight but almost too many in a weird way.

aw

My suggestion is to a kind of a compromise. Accept that they are going to build somewhere on the house, but get them to build somewhere that is acceptable to you i.e. away from the baby's room.

Put up a couple of these nest boxes. and hopefully they will be encouraged to use them.
You can also put up a few more on your garage to try and keep them away from the house altogether.

bb12

all the swallows have disappeared from around me. they used to nest in my stables but disappeared about 5 years ago. i wish you could send some of your swallows my way. would love to have them nesting on my house.

_Brian

We’re down from a time when there could be a dozen nests round the farmyard. Three or four last year and I only see one this year.

The cuckoo is back in recent years after maybe 20years absence, but it seems we’re just about to lose another species.

we have steel wire under the eaves in the home place which prevents them nesting.
Put up with the filth and inconveience until the brood is fledged and address the issue in Autumn.

Swallows nests, eggs and chicks are protected under the Wildlife Act 1976 and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and European-level legislation. The penalties for tampering with swallows or disturbing their active nests consists of heavy fines and even imprisonment. So any bird proofing work that needs to be carried can only be done during the migratory process. ie. between the months of September to mid-March. Furthermore nest removal can also only be carried out once the birds and fledglings have vacated the nests.

Shaunoc

One afternoon in April/may they visited me to build a nest outside my bedroom window. I spent 15 minutes deterring them from getting started. They got the message and built elsewhere. I was surprised they gave up so quickly, but I see them flying about so they must have built closeby

Diziet

I come from Greece, and having swallows nests on the house is considered a privilege and extremely good luck. They also eat an extraordinary amount of midges and other insects.

Babies don't care about background noise, they will sleep through loud vacuuming and so on. Plus, swallows are protected.

hirondelle

This is a depressing thread. I understand the OP and everyone else not wanting to have to deal with bird cr*p, but the claims by some of walls etc. of being covered etc. are exaggerated- and yes, I get swallows so know what they produce. As for knocking down nests in spite of knowing the distances travelled home (and they are Irish birds of course), I really give up. How may posters have dogs or other pets that produce far more waste, but it isn't an issue. The noise issue I understand too- but it really is a for a few weeks and then they are gone.

People need to understand that these types of birds are decreasing in number- every nest knocked is potentially another breeding year gone for these birds as they may not find a site that they can consider suitable elsewhere. We have already prevented a lot of nesting with the introduction of plastic fascia and soffits, so to prevent any nesting at all really just condemns these birds to greater losses.

A slight correction also- house martins are what nest on the outside of your houses, barn swallows are the ones that nest in sheds, stables etc. Both are reducing in numbers (as well as sand martins and swifts) and due in part to us. Posters assuming that just because they knock some nests the birds will find other sites ignores the possibility that others will also knock their nests down.

I have been lucky in the last ten years where I am living to get swallows in our shed- I put a bit of cardboard beneath the nest and clean up any residue when they're gone. Last year, one of the parents got predated- nest was abandoned. This year- a couple came into the shed but no sign of nesting and probably not at this stage. So, even sites where the birds are welcomed are not not a guarantee of swallows in future.

I have also put two twin housemartin boxes on my house and no joy in two years (even though a few have looked into them)- so for those who get them, please try to live with a little bit of birdy doo-doo, keep the window closed if very loud and admire the fact that you have birds that will eat a lot of midges, biting flies etc. that also live in your garden.

SouthWesterly

Had a nest last year which was reused from the previous year.
Chicks kept falling out onto the ground so I took it away over winter jn the hope the swallow would rebuild.
They didn't though I don't see as many around this year.

jones

aw wrote:

My suggestion is to a kind of a compromise. Accept that they are going to build somewhere on the house, but get them to build somewhere that is acceptable to you i.e. away from the baby's room.

Cheers and I agree this is exactly what I've been doing. I left a spot they started to build on the eaves of the garage. Weird thing is they seem to have abandoned that one maybe it's just going slower though hard to keep track of all the comes and goings

hirondelle

hirondelle wrote: »

This is a depressing thread. I understand the OP and everyone else not wanting to have to deal with bird cr*p, but the claims by some of walls etc. of being covered etc. are exaggerated- and yes, I get swallows so know what they produce. As for knocking down nests in spite of knowing the distances travelled home (and they are Irish birds of course), I really give up. How may posters have dogs or other pets that produce far more waste, but it isn't an issue. The noise issue I understand too- but it really is a for a few weeks and then they are gone.

People need to understand that these types of birds are decreasing in number- every nest knocked is potentially another breeding year gone for these birds as they may not find a site that they can consider suitable elsewhere. We have already prevented a lot of nesting with the introduction of plastic fascia and soffits, so to prevent any nesting at all really just condemns these birds to greater losses.

A slight correction also- house martins are what nest on the outside of your houses, barn swallows are the ones that nest in sheds, stables etc. Both are reducing in numbers (as well as sand martins and swifts) and due in part to us. Posters assuming that just because they knock some nests the birds will find other sites ignores the possibility that others will also knock their nests down.

I have been lucky in the last ten years where I am living to get swallows in our shed- I put a bit of cardboard beneath the nest and clean up any residue when they're gone. Last year, one of the parents got predated- nest was abandoned. This year- a couple came into the shed but no sign of nesting and probably not at this stage. So, even sites where the birds are welcomed are not not a guarantee of swallows in future.

I have also put two twin housemartin boxes on my house and no joy in two years (even though a few have looked into them)- so for those who get them, please try to live with a little bit of birdy doo-doo, keep the window closed if very loud and admire the fact that you have birds that will eat a lot of midges, biting flies etc. that also live in your garden.

Great post. Agree a lot of depressing thread openings on the forum, ie How do I kill/prevent this, that or the other. I know it's a garden, we choose what grows there, but it seems to be a state of mind ingrained in us in Ireland.

Mightn't know what it is, but know we want it dead.

ec_pc

My wife always says swallows nesting on your house is good luck. We had a nest in our open front porch for 16 years and it was used every summer. There were always running repairs until it actually fell off one year. We were delighted to see they rebuilt it the next year. It was still there when we left. Interestingly we were plagued with them one year and they tried to build all across the back of the house but kept moving to new spots. It was the first year after the house had been painted and never happened again. I wonder did the freshly painted walls have anything to do with it.

Their droppings are desperate stuff and will stain cement. We put down a square of plastic sheet every year to collect the droppings.

I find I have to be careful not to leave garage roller door open for too long as they have tried to build inside and trying to get them out is not easy. As for the robins in the shed (not building) but they think it's a game you are playing with them, cheeky feckers.

macraignil

Got what looks like a double nest just above the window next to where I sleep and I have not noticed much noise from it this year. It was there for the first time last year and I noticed the bird noises a bit more then, but never at a level I would have found disturbing. I find waking up to the noise from the house martins to be a nice way to wake up and nicer than the noise from crows landing on the roof where they decide to perch sometimes. We have a bunch of what looks like four nests together at the apex of the garage roof where we got the first one built a few years back and a new nest just built in the last few weeks on the other side of the house. I think that makes a total of seven nests here this year which I think is great as being close to a farm yard means anything to reduce the number of flies about the place is great. The birds are natural pest control and I have not noticed noise from them at night that would disturb sleep. I count the droppings as free fertiliser for the garden and wont be taking any steps to discourage them here. They're a great sight to see flying about the garden.

10-10-20

I spotted two in a field beside me in Sandyford today; the first this year. Hoping for more.
I have a nest in a downpipe-bend which has been used for quite a number of years, hoping it will be reused if it's still safe.

looksee

I have seen mostly swallows around though there are a few martins. Only seems to be one nest though, half built, right up in the apex of the roof, I couldn't reach it if I wanted, but its fine anyway, not sure whether it is a swallow or martin nest.

elperello

If you have a spot which is a particular problem for you an old cd screwed to the wall or timber will discourage them .

The reflection seems to put them off.

Just put it up before they come back in Spring.

Mimon

aw wrote: »

My suggestion is to a kind of a compromise. Accept that they are going to build somewhere on the house, but get them to build somewhere that is acceptable to you i.e. away from the baby's room.

Put up a couple of these nest boxes. and hopefully they will be encouraged to use them.
You can also put up a few more on your garage to try and keep them away from the house altogether.

Are people sure it is swallows? They could be House Martens and they would have a different nest structure.

hirondelle

Mimon wrote: »

Are people sure it is swallows? They could be House Martens and they would have a different nest structure.

I suggested previously that they were house martins and that swallows will be found in sheds etc.They are of course properly called barn swallows.

Mimon

hirondelle wrote: »

I suggested previously that they were house martins and that swallows will be found in sheds etc.They are of course properly called barn swallows.

Yes. On outside more likely to be House Martens.

Barn swallow is used in North America only. Just called Swallow on this side of the Atlantic.

looksee

I heard a story of a food factory where there were some adjoining sheds that swallows were nesting in and making a desperate mess. It was decided that this could not go on, understandably as it was really not desirable for even things like fork lifts to be messed up with bird droppings. But management decided rather unwisely to close the shed off in the middle of the nesting season, whereupon it was like a scene from The Birds with people being harassed and dive bombed by angry swallows in the yard and car park. I don't know how they resolved it, but it was war for a while.