Our annual visitors - barn swallows

I remember when I was just a young girl going to visit my Babi (that's Czech for grandmother) and she had above the door to her bedroom a porcelain nest with two grown swallows perched on the side and three baby swallows inside poking their heads out. I asked Babi about it and she said that Czech's believe that barn swallows bring you luck. Well, we must have quite a bit of luck because in the four summers that we have been here, a pair of swallows has raised 6 clutches of little babies. Here is part of this year's hatch:


Newly hatched swallows are like human babies in that they only do three things: eat, poop and sleep. We always laugh at our baby swallows because whenever we walk by they stick their heads out of the nest and open those baby beaks and beg us to put something in there! I guess they don't care who feeds them, just as long as someone does!


Mom and dad swallow work tirelessly from the first crack of dawn until there is no more daylight, hunting flying insects for their brood. Soon enough, the babies actually start looking like little swallows. We call this the 'thug' stage because their wings are hunched up like the shoulders of bad-attitude teenagers. We're high school teachers so we have some experience with that!


Soon the young swallows are ready to leave the nest. There were five in this years batch and we saw all of them eventually leave the nest. Those first flights are scary but mom and dad are there to guide and encourage. One by one they learn to fly, usually one fledgling each day until the last finally follows in his nest-mate's wingbeats. The family still comes home to sleep for about two weeks after they all leave the nest, but then they're gone...off in search of rich hunting grounds to fatten up for their long flight south for the winter. See you next spring!