Welcome swallow nesting update

And then there was one . . . this is the last baby.   

It felt quite strange to watch the swallows fledge.  One after the other they flew out of the nest, and the young birds were very closely pursued by their parents until they landed on a nearby roof.  I was amazed at how well the fledglings flew.  It was a thrilling moment.

The parents were calling with high pitched alarm when any other bird came near.  Black-backed magpies, Spotted turtle doves and Noisy miners were harassed and pursued with passion.  The Noisy miners in particular were vigorously mobbed and were literally shrieked at by the parents.  Although they are native, I have developed a slight dislike to Noisy miners over the years because of their naked aggression towards almost any other bird in our garden.

One Noisy miner is bad enough.  Get two or three of them together and almost nothing is safe from their harassment.  They are real heroes too, and love picking on smaller birds.  They would probably kill a weaker or slower bird that could not escape their attention for example, a fledgling Welcome swallow on its maiden flight.  So I stayed as long as I could to ensure the fledgling swallows survived their first flights, and headed off to work.

When I returned home, there still two baby swallows remaining in the nest.  That was a bit of a relief, as I was fully expecting that they would all be gone.  Surprisingly, the fledglings seem to be returning to the nest to spend the night with the other babies that have not fledged yet.

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It is Sunday 26th October as I write this, and I am very happy to report that all the Welcome swallow chicks have now fledged. Over the last couple of days, we have been a bit sad to see the nest is empty for most of the day.  But to our sheer delight, the majority of the Welcome swallow brood and their parents are returning to spend the night.  Sadly, there seems to be only three fledglings remaining, but perhaps the missing two chicks were the eldest and so were the first to become independent.

It has been an absolute delight to have shared our home with these acrobatic birds.  We have loved every moment.  It's funny how the older generation think about them; my parents visited Casa da Ayre for a BBQ lunch when the Welcome swallows were first starting to build their nest.  I pointed the nest out, and all my parents could say was, "knock it down mate, don't let them build a nest because they will make a huge mess."  Amanda & I laughed and told them we were honoured they had chosen to nest here, and will help keep down flies & mosquitoes from our house.  Our dogs tend to attract biting flies and we do get Anopheles sp mosquitoes in summer.  Anything that helps reduce these insects is most welcome.  We'd prefer not to use insect sprays if we can help it.

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It's funny how my parents have changed their minds about them, as they have seen our photos of the growing brood.  They have been saying how cute they are etc, etc.  Were they right?  Were the nesting Welcome swallows messy and smelly?

At first, no.  While the adults were building the nest and incubating eggs, there was no mess at all.  While the chicks were small and barely had any down, the adults used to transport droppings away from the nest and distribute them at random across our back yard.  We have a bird feeder & a bird bath and the visiting doves, lorikeets and rosellas make much more mess.

In the last week, I think the adults were overwhelmed and droppings started to accumulate under the nest.  But it wasn't a problem, because it didn't affect the house, or our cars and simply washed away with a quick squirt from the hose.  Win !  Even better - they have never been in any way smelly - even the small pile of droppings that accumulated in the last week didn't smell.  

So all-in-all, it has been a wonderful experience, and we both hope they nest here again soon, and if the chicks survive to adulthood, that they may return in years to come too.      
  

Late afternoon feed for the fledgling Welcome swallow brood, Casa da Ayre