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Barn Swallows In A Neighbour’s Barn
Part 1, May, June, 2020. By Linda Glass-Ward Last June (2020) the female of our only pair of barn
swallows disappeared, after laying 5 eggs. The lonely little husband did not sit on his eggs, nor was he able to feed hatchlings. It was so sad. Then, I got permission to study barn swallows in a neighbour’s vacant barn. It was open on the south side. Many layers of lime have smoothed the rough sawn joists. There I photographed and witnessed the barn swallows’ fascinating behaviour. Here are the highlights.
MAY 4 I had put up several small barn swallow shelves inside that barn. JUNE 7 I noted that barn swallows built a nest on one of my shelves, which proved that I had found The Shelf That Works.
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JUNE 16 I began a serious study, visiting daily. Notes and pictures showed I had observed 4 pairs there, but only 3 nests of 9 were active. Nest 1 On a light fixture, furthest south, no eggs. Nest 2 Old renovated nest 2nd from south, on a cross brace, which I thought it was another type of bird because the nest was covered with feathers, but there were five babes. The next day the babies, with black down already, were on top of the feathers. Nest 3New nest on a shelf I built, lined with feathers, with 5 eggs. Hooray! Nest 4 Renovated phoebe nest and was active, covered in moving feathers. The pink babes had just hatched. Nest 5 Phoebe nest on cross bridging, too far below the ceiling for use. Nest 6 An empty robin’s nest, near the north wall on a beam. Nest 7 On a beam, and there is a nice hole in the ceiling there, plus the beam for rats to walk on. Nest 8 On the end of a “rafter” which had sagged down from the metal roof. Nest 9 Mentioned later, found on a light fixture by the silos.
JUNE 17 I found three active nests after having a good look around. There were a couple of nests I did not see at first, but are recorded in the previous paragraph. From south to north; Nest 1 closest to the open window on the light fixture is empty. In the same aisle, the next three nests are occupied. An old one on the cross bridging which has been ren-
ovated, called Nest 2 had 5 babes with nice big beaks and black down. The new Nest 3 on my shelf still has five eggs. Farther north in the renovated phoebe Nest 4 the 5
babes already hatched yesterday the 16th, but were so small they were just little pink blobs. How they had grown in about 26 hours, having big heads and beaks already!
JUNE 18About 8 barn swallows came out making a big fuss. Then the neighbour came in with another man, send- ing the flock into a tizzy, whereupon other birds came from across the road (possibly) and joined in. There were at least a dozen. Then I hid in the barn and watched as they settled down again. There were seven or eight birds, of which only three pairs were nesting.
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JUNE 22 About 10 birds were flying and foraging. The parents got upset when I approached the nests. Because of dry weather I brought mud, horse manure and water in case more birds wanted to build nests.
JUNE 24 The 5 eggs in Nest 3 were in a different place from the day before, which proved that it has not been abandoned.
JUNE 25 The old nest in the silo room had some feces under it. I had another look at Nest 1 on the light fixture by the window, nothing. Nest 2 had 5 babies, almost big enough to fly. Nest 3 on my shelf, still only 5 eggs. Nest 4 on the phoebe nest. The babies are quickly catching up to Nest 2. No evidence of other active nests although I still saw 8 adults.
JUNE 26 Nest 2 had flight feathers and one baby was on the cross bridging outside the nest. Nest 3 2 babes had fi- nally hatched, and resembled embryos. Nest 4 the babes were gaining their flight feathers, growing fast and stick- ing out of the nest.
JUNE 27 The babies in Nest 2 were almost ready to fledge. Nest 3 4 eggs had hatched and one remained. Nest 4 the babies were getting their flight feathers.
JUNE 28 Nest 2 same as yesterday, with the 5 babies crowded out of the nest, but not fledged yet. Nest 3 The fifth egg hatched. Surprisingly it took 3 days for the entire clutch to hatch, and was a mass of pink babes. Nest 4 was the same as yesterday.
JUNE 29 Nest 2 exploded into flight. One little bird went
the wrong way, while the other four flew outside. The one that went the wrong way fluttered against one of the closed windows on the north side of the barn. I carefully trapped the bird in the bottom corner of the window and grasped it gently, carried it to the nest, put it in, but it flew out again. This time it flew to a ledge in a darker part of the barn. It was safe there, where the parents could find it. Nest 3 was full of little helpless ones, under the parents’ feathers. Nest 4 is starting to look ready to fly as well. As I was leaving swallows were too numerous to count and it was difficult to tell the babies from the adults. They were all flying about, playing and chasing one another and land- ing on the electrical wires leading to the barn in the bright evening sun shine.
JUNE 30 When I stepped into the barn I think the Nest 2 fledglings were on the milker hangers, because they flew in all directions. Two of them fluttered against the win- dow. I caught one and released it outside. The other was fluttering so quickly, but I managed to corner it, when I noticed a broken corner in the window and carefully put it out the little hole. Nest 3, the babes were growing and moving. Nest 4 the young looked almost ready to fledge. I did not want to frighten them. A squawking robin flew out as well, prompting me to look at Nest 6. There were 3 beautiful robin’s eggs in that nest. Continue reading in next month’s Rider to see what
happened in July 2021. All 6 Ontario swallows and mar- tins have lost a staggering 80% of their population in the last 40 years. For information please google Nature Canada, Birds Canada or see Facebook Linda Marie Glass Ward, 519 327-4541.
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