Jim’s Blog

Since the brood of 3 fledglings flew off the first time we have not had barn swallows roosting overnight over our patio. But, everyday we have a pair of barn swallows checking out the nest. I don’t know if it’s the same pair every time or not. I just looked out the back door while one barn swallow was sitting on the ledge and another (likely the mate) was swooping around under the patio cover.
 

 
The last two days, we’ve had a barn swallow sitting in the nest for a few minutes at a time. Today, two birds switched in the nest. Then, a few minutes later, both were gone. It could be that the female of the pair is laying eggs again. If this is true, in a day or two one of them will be in the nest full time for the 14-day incubation period.
 

The young birds are still returning every evening. The parent birds are still feeding their offspring. In the two pics below, one fledgling appeared. Shortly thereafter a parent bird arrived (on left) and fed the little guy.

At dusk last night, the three fledglings returned and waited on a cable under the eaves while the parent birds came and fed them several times. I didn’t know that the parents would still be feeding the birds two days after they were flying around.
 
 
 

The fledglings have been back together a couple of times this morning sitting in the shade on the edge of the roof. The parent birds swooped down over their offspring as if to say, “Follow us we have something to teach you.” And off they flew following their parents.

Right on schedule, the baby birds left the nest this morning. One minute they were in the nest, the next they were all gone. The parent birds came looking in the nest for them. Then one of the baby birds came back to the nest where one of the parents fed him. Then he was gone again. now that it is starting to get dark, the three showed up on a ledge over the patio with the two parent birds on a ledge directly across from the fledglings.

Today is day 18 for the barn swallows in the nest. I snapped the photo of them while a parent bird was swooping by, thus the reason for the open beaks. Just as the sun was starting to set, two bunnies were eating right below the bird feeder with some white-winged doves.

 
 
Tomorrow should be 17 days since the first bird hatched. According to what I read, they fledge or leave the nest at 19 – 23 days. So, these birds are about ready to go. They are almost as big at their parents now.
 
 
 

I have working trying to get some better pics of the baby barn swallows and captured a couple this A.M. One of the babies almost fell out of the nest a couple of times today while I was watching. The baby bird was up on the edge of the nest facing inward, started to slip, flapped its wings hard and got back in the nest. Meanwhile, a frantic parent bird was hovering just to the side and below the bird should it fall.