The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Rupert the bear on August 10, 2016, 05:35:09 am
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Last week at work the swallows left, nearly everyone remarked about it , the opinion was tat possibly they upped sticks because of the up turn in activity.
Yesterday morning as I got ready for work there was a massing of swallows on the steading roof and power cables so many I couldn't count them , an nice sight. Today .none :( .they have left and according to the diary one month early. Its very quiet here now .
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Another sign of a hard winter to go with the amount of berries about. Ooh-ar you have been warned :eyelashes:
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Quite likely the result of a late arrival meaning they only tried to rear the one brood instead of fitting in a second sitting. The abundance of berries is due to the growing season and not that to come. Frosts and wind did not do for the flowers before they set the fruit.
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Down here in Devon our swallows have had two broods successfully fledge. There are many young swallows swooping about in and out of the house, building their strength for the long flight south. Our B and B guests are all highly amused at seeing small swallows sitting on the top of the open garden room doors!
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The old wives tales came about from a long history of observation of weather patterns. OK there's 'climate change' and those patterns may well be varying.....but...
Oh, and our house martins only raised one brood and left early too.
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Well I thought autumn had arrived so maybe the swallows thought that too!
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Temperatures are definitely autumnal here - forecast for today max 12, "feels like" temperature 9 degree! This is still supposed to be summer!
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Temperatures are definitely autumnal here - forecast for today max 12, "feels like" temperature 9 degree! This is still supposed to be summer!
I've been in two or three cotton layers for a week (all long-sleeved, one plain, one brushed and one 'fleecey'.) Just wrapped my woolen shawl around myself in the evenings when it gets chilly. Only lit the Rayburn a handful of time in the last two months. That's summer in Cumbria!
Will have a look for our swallows today - they were certainly still around 3 days ago. One family lives in the dogs' pens, so they shout at me when I go in at night :love:
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Got a second brood in my hay loft at the mo, chittering away. Summer seems to have returned here temporarily (i.e. it's not p*ssing down like it has been for the past few months).
I just posted a question under the wildlife section for any of you who live with swallows.....:)
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We thought there was only one brood then suddenly at least two more appeared, chattering and swooping, so pleased to be out of their tight squeeze of a nest. There's even a nest with eggs in - don't hold out much hope for them. There were a couple of young swallows eating from the seed feeder again this morning. We have plenty of flies here, and it's about to pour, for the next few days.
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We seem to have had far fewer swallows this year! Desperately NEED rain, The fields are looking a bit brown and 3 or 4 days of steady rain would do the grass the world of good.
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We seem to have had far fewer swallows this year! Desperately NEED rain, The fields are looking a bit brown and 3 or 4 days of steady rain would do the grass the world of good.
There's enough up here to wash the whole country away. Wouldn't it be great if we could swap weather occasionally :thinking: I think the amount of rain falling here is made worse by the rivers of tears shed by those of us attempting to get a hay crop in.
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I was getting worried at the thought of all the swallows leaving. So relieved that there are plenty left.
We haven't had a decent fall of rain for several weeks. I'm fed up with keep dragging the hose down the garden every night.
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Ours hatched another lot out, we heard them calling for food about Thursday 11th, so not sure how old that would make them. I so hope they are old enough to survive :fc:.
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They don't usually leave until mid Sept, and wee ones can hang on longer than that if they need to fatten a bit more so they'll be fine. We still have loads flying here and showing no sign of leaving.
Our nest with eggs in turned out to be a wren which had commandeered a swallow nest, which is now stuffed full of tiny baby wrens :)
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Out of the nest on Tues/Wednesday, outside flying today, interesting, first lot were fed inside for almost a week, this lot are being encouraged out sooner. Not sure theyve got the landing gear quite organised yet. Thought there were 4, now maybe 5, so we've got 9 or 10 away this year.OK, not many up to some, but I'm happy ;D
They are whizzing across the front of the house, keep getting shadow flashing past.
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Picture taken with mobile this year.
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Lovely (and the swallows are pretty too!)
A thing I long to do before I die is to actually see them set off on their long journey. I watch them gathering, then fly off and think "this is it", then, 10 minutes later they are back on 'phone wires. This goes on for a few days and the day I'm absorbed in something else, or have to go somewhere else off they go!!
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"Ours" also had a late brood, much to my surprise. I was just thinking about moving some of the turkeys into the old stable for the Winter and then I saw a row of gaping beaks along the top of one of the nests.
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By the 22nd we will be in full autumn ,the highlands have seen a change .I do think by October the first cold spell .
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Ours must have left 2 or 3 days ago, suddenly realised they werent there, my poor babies, I hope they are strong enough for the journey, 2nd brood have hardly had time to learn anything. Im sure I once read they head south and stop for a while before the next leg, I hope so, only about a week out of the nest :-(. we had about 20 flying round, I think there must have been some in the field shelter as well.
Interesting there was a bird sleeping tucked into the polytunnel door, where the diagonal meets the top corner (polythene fell off so windbreak tacked to the inside of frame). this is the third night its been missing, I wonder if it was a swallow? didnt like to shine torch on it and disturb it in the dark.
so sad they've gone.
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They'll be back next year PHB, something to look forward to during a long, cold winter! And, they will usually be the same ones you've just said goodbye to!
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What is it that triggers their migration? Day length, temperature, date? I think ours might have gone overnight/ early this morning. There were about two dozen of them on the roof yesterday, but no sign today.
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The wires were still full of them 10 minutes ago here.
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They were back in the barn today!
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Ours (a mixed flock of swallows and house martins (perhaps also a few sand martins) who have spent the last few weeks perched on the house roof) left sometime on Saturday.
Everything seems much quieter and less lively without them!
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Back in barn tonight, only 6 I think, parents and last brood?
I wonder if they go on a practise run, the older ones carry on, parents bring babies back to grow on, waved their elder siblings off?
Because there been brought back by their parents that how they know to come back next year? But if that is so, why do we still only get 1 pair every year?
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Our last lot have just left the nest. Only a week or so before the adults leave. One year a late hatching brood like this was left behind - they stayed for a few weeks then joined up with other late hatched swallows from the area and set off south together.
We never get as many back as flew away - it's a highly dangerous and risky journey they make, so most don't get through. I find it amazing that so many do return.
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The swallows always pick my horses stable to nest, probably on account of his laid back nature so he would never bother them. The bird poop all over him and the occasional dive bomb is a bit of an inconvenience though :roflanim:
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We usually get several nests in the barn where we store our motorbikes. Same problem with the guano :rant:
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I'm more than happy to clear up after the for all the joy and happiness they bring.
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I'm more than happy to clear up after the for all the joy and happiness they bring.
I just put plastic or a little 'roof' over anything that's a problem, big sheet of woven plastic over hay.
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Back in barn tonight, only 6 I think, parents and last brood?
I wonder if they go on a practise run, the older ones carry on, parents bring babies back to grow on,
Only 4 the last couple of nights, looks like babies are on their own.
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I'm always amazed how their built in sat. nav. get them all the way to Africa!
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They've definitely gone now, think it was Wednesday after the storm :(.
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Most of ours went a week ago, straight into the teeth of that southerly. A few days later we had lots again - probably from further north. They went the next day, but we still have the 4 babies which are now 2 weeks fledged. They are now flying very confidently, and there are loads of flies for them to stock up, so we are expecting them to go any day.
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Some locals are still here but we too keep getting droves of them from further afield, which then go the next day.
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Ours are gone and, as usual without a goodbye wave!
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Still a few swifts down here in Cornwall Wed or Thurs this week - just can't remember which - swooping around the tractor. None today. (Supposedly one of the earliest to migrate from the UK, so perhaps they were a few northern stragglers passing through.)
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Disappeared from our bit of MidWales a couple of weeks ago.
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I have not seen any today.
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I have a young one still in the field shelter. It can fly but still hanging around inside. Rather late to make the long journey home.
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Poor little dear!