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Foreign immigrants looking for a home...
by loiswakeman @ 12/05/2008 - 12:38:02

We hear lots of complaints about "coming over here and taking our houses". I wonder if resident UK birds think the same of summer migrants?

Swallows

At last, we have some swallows zooming about twittering in the garden (though I saw the first one over a month ago). There was one perched on top of the kitchen dresser this morning after I'd left the back door open: quite a palaver catching it and releasing it into the garden!

My husband has designed our shed so we can open a panel in the eaves for the summer. This makes the high-up dark opening that they seem to love. Inside, there are some shelves for their nests. A pair are already investigating, so I hope we have a nest soon.

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SeasideManSeasideMan pro
12/05/08 @ 12:56

It would be marvelous to have Swallowa nestibg in your shed. Well done for giving them the conditions they need. Unfortunately, our cat spolied a bluetit's nest in our hedge yesterday. I saw the broken blue shells on the pavement, poor things.

Tom.

tylluanpenrytylluanpenry pro
12/05/08 @ 14:56

It feels so much more like summer once the swallows return. When I was young there was a big old barn (not ours) that served as a garage near the back of our house. The two elderly gents that ran the garage knew almost to the day when the swallows would come and when they would depart, and open the loft for them in May.
Apparently they would see a single 'scout' swallow return ahead of the flock, check out the loft was ready and then return a day later with the rest!

jackfrostjackfrost pro
12/05/08 @ 19:45

you dont seem to see so many swallows as when i was a kid ..swifts are the same there seems to be fewer...or maybe as a child it was still facinating and i took more notice???

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
13/05/08 @ 09:43

I'm still entranced by them even in late middle-age: it's lovely to lie on the ground and watch them barrel-rolling in tandem over the roof, or the swifts screaming high overhead on a warm evening.

We lived in a more urban area as kids, so it's hard for me to compare numbers.

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jackfrostjackfrost pro
13/05/08 @ 09:58

I remember the farmer moaning about the amount of jays..and seeing them all the time. the kingfishers were easily spotted and the swifts and swallows would swop in the summer afternoon...every garden seemed to have a robin and sparrows played everywhere...this was nowhere special it was in Essex in the 60-70's

Mind you after reading your post I decided that maybe I had lost the ability to view the world around me through the eyes of a child…so on the walk to school I asked the kids to see how many birds they could see…yes I have become childhood blind for they saw starlings …a robin some sparrows playing on the roof and some ravens/rooks nesting in the tall trees….i must remember to be peter pan every now and then and to re learn things from my children. To watch them learn can be an awesome experience that we seldom have time for these days …

Some people write their posts and feel that what they say is mundane and maybe have little point …your post stimulated a lot of thought and brought back memories from my childhood that I had forgotten …so thanks:).

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
13/05/08 @ 14:11

I lived in Essex (Upminster) till I was 8 (which would've been in the early 60s) - I wonder if we passed in the street?

My mum was always shooing the starlings away, as she didn't like them eating the smaller birds' food. But the garden backed onto open fields then, and we got some farmland birds too. (still is by the look of it - amazing after all these years!)

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jackfrostjackfrost pro
13/05/08 @ 14:24

i went to school in billericay and lived in a place called ramsden bellhouse near wickford..i was 8 in 64 which is when we moved there....

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
14/05/08 @ 14:54

Just missed you then!

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