[Fleecewife]

Went in byre this morning and found a nest up in eaves with 3 swallow babies in it, they look fairly new, parents are furiously feeding but all the other swallows are starting to line up on the telegraph wires prepearing to go, will the parents abandon these babies and go with the rest or will they wait until their own babies are ready to go? Think their might be another nest full of babies in the farrowing house, oh dear
mandy 

That was my initial worry, but I don't think they will abandon them in the nest.  What will be interesting will be to see at what stage they will leave them on their own once they have fledged.  Most years we have some young birds which seem to follow on later, after the main flock has headed south.  I worry that those birds won't make it the whole way, unless it's a very favourable year.
I think a lot of swallows altogether must perish either on the journey or when they get there, because there are never as many coming back as those that left 
 
Let us know what happens with your newbies Mandy 

[Fowgill Farm]

Will do, i asked OH if they would survivie an English winter if they got left behind but he said it was unlikely as would be too cold and not enuff bugs around to feed them and i agree with you there seems to have been fewer return to us this year.
Mandy 

[jaykay]

I think some of these late fledglings don't go as far as Africa but maybe to the south of France and Spain - I read something somewhere about it once.

[bazzais]

Bleedin swallows are kamakazy almost.  I swear they are more of a surprise than a bat flying by your head in the dark.

Had loads here too this year flying around. A few nestings in the shed - crapping on my lights and equipment and such

Interesting to read where they go and stuff.  Never knew they went so far.

[Fleecewife]

Oh they do make a horrendous mess  .  If you stand still for a minute they get you too      But they are truly worth it Bazzais.  They are so tiny but they fly all the way down to South Africa (where they seem to roost in shrubby trees in large numbers, a bit like starlings here (or so I saw in a tv documentary  )). They stay there to fatten up on all the insects down there then magically they fly all the way north again, right back to the place they were hatched.  Wonderful      They work so hard too raising three nestfuls of babies and catching all those flies we hate to feed them.
 
It's always a relief when they fly south in September and the clear-up can begin.  Suddenly you can hear all the other birds which have had their songs drowned out by the swallow babble.  The cat gets some peace from being dive-bombed every time she snoozes in the sunshine.   But then when they come back in Spring they are so welcome  I love the way they don't give a tinkers about humans, don't fear us, barely notice us, we are just there to inhabit the buildings they need for nesting 

[bangbang]

We saw a gathering today on our power lines of at least 50 swallows.
We still have 3 left that are returning to their nest area in our out-building though.
Can't be long now.....

[luckylady]

The cat gets some peace from being dive-bombed every time she snoozes in the sunshine.

Our cats get dive-bombed too!

Bleedin swallows are kamakazy almost.  I swear they are more of a surprise than a bat flying by your head in the dark.

When we had our bat survey done a few weeks ago one of the four 'batmen' was stood near the outbuilding the swallows nest in.  They were getting quite perturbed by his presence and I warned him that they were going to dive-bomb him but he didn't believe me until a succession of them flew past his nose end and frightened the life out of him. Ha told you.
 
 

[Fowgill Farm]

The main party of swallows left two days ago just before this awful weather descended, we have though 3 small families left, a set of parents, one juvenile and a baby not fledged yet in one of the pig huts, two juveniles in a stable and a set of parents and 3 fledglings in the byre, hopefully the weather will improve and enable them to get away to warmer climes. 
mandy

[luckylady]

Ours all left end of last week. 

[Fleecewife]

Our main lot went last week but left two youngsters (fledged) behind.  The martins have also left 4 youngsters behind but I think they will all go when the low pressure system heads south again.

[robert waddell]

ours are still here yet    i think it was three or four nests that had young in them