[Anke]

That's summer here then 

Summer indeed...  frost here this morning. My beech hedge which I am growing to get some privacy from wannabe-housebuilders next door, has got badly frosted. Only yesterday I saw the first proper green leaves budding...

Not sure beech is the best choice for privacy Anke, mine completely defoliates in winter, wish I'd planted holly or a row of various conifers.
Or bamboo in a root barrier 😊

This one did so far keep a lot of leaves in winter, and Scots pine is going up in the second line, a bit further from the boundary to ensure we can grow them on as trees and not just a hedge... it is our north edge so no light lost from us.

[Steph Hen]

First swallows here in Angus 

[Penninehillbilly]

Yippee! First swallows here in W. York's.
Lovely to see them back, but they tell us to get out of the barn 🤣

[Fleecewife]

Yippee! First swallows here in W. York's.
Lovely to see them back, but they tell us to get out of the barn

I wonder if that's why we love swallows so much - they are so unfazed by people and don't take any cheek from us 

[Backinwellies]

   saw first one here yesterday (flew round a few times then vanished again (hope he hadnt decided that the residence wasnt up to his/her standards (well one fell down and other was invaided by sparrows!)

[Fleecewife]

It's better for swallows to start with new nests in case the old one still has hungry lice etc in it.

[Possum]

Ours arrived on 26 April as well. Their favourite perch seems to be the telephone wires above the neighbouring stables. Presumably lots of insects flying around.

[Rupert the bear]

Last night whilst doing the pre bedtime check I ended up counting the roosting swallows round the buildings.
a total of 107 swallows , In a couple of places it was single birds roosting  in others just lines of birds on the electricity cables wing to wing ,quite surprised it looks like the best year ever . I wonder how many of them will make the round trip back next year.
Looking in last years diary its getting close to leaving time.

[Fleecewife]

It's a good year for swallows here too, but I doubt we have 107  , just a skyfull. There was a furious chase of a red kite last week, kites not being common here, and the usual occasional high speed chase of the sparrow hawk when it's helped itself to a juvenile swallow.  Our young JR appeared to have caught one too but as the other swallows didn't react I assume he actually found it dead. We have also acquired a pair of Peregrines nesting within half a mile and apparently our Hobbies are back after over 20 years but no encounters between them and the swallows that I have witnessed.
We usually have one or two nests with a late brood in which leave after the rest so I must check nests. It's usually the middle of September they leave from here in Southern Scotland so not long. Then we can do the annual scrub of everything covered in swallow 

[Backinwellies]

Not a good year here      Only one swallow nest and 2 house Martin nests ( half what we had last year ... and a fraction of 5 years ago)     First swallow brood didnt hatch.  They reared 3 in second batch.  House Martins both reared 2 broods but one of the nests hit the floor a few days before the babies were fledged ..... hope next year is better

[Fleecewife]

That happened to our house martins last year Backinwellies, when we had a severe drought here. They made their nest of dry sand so just after the chicks hatched it fell and the two tiny chicks were killed.  We have no martins this year.
I hope your swallow numbers are back up next year. I think a lot depends on their luck crossing the desert, with fewer and fewer water holes. Perhaps with climate change they will start to over winter north of the desert so will have a less perilous migration.

[Penninehillbilly]

Ours have just hatched another brood , really concerned for youngsters future 

[Fleecewife]

Ours have just hatched another brood , really concerned for youngsters future 

Don't worry!  They will fly in a month. Sometimes the parents leave first but only once the young ones have fledged and worked out how to catch their own food.  They are chancing it a bit but that's how nature works - they may survive or they may not.  Another cliche is 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger', so any which do survive may lead to the genetic changes necessary to adapt to Climate Change.  Evolution in action 

[Penninehillbilly]

FW, but they're like our babies, we watch them with pride, taking their first practise flights in the barn, learning how to land on the beams without falling backwards LOL, Natural to worry 

[Fleecewife]

Phb, I'm the worst worrier, but some things are pointless to worry about.  What will be will be. Unless you ring the swallows you will never know which ones come back.  All you can do is to enjoy the ones that you can then wave goodbye when they leave and wish them goodspeed.  I tend to worry when they come back in spring, following the weather forecasts avidly. I think that comes from osprey watching (the female osprey at Loch Arkaig didn't return to her nest and mate last year  ).  I tend to imagine the ospreys and swallows travel together but of course they don't 
Enjoy the new hatchlings until they go