The first blush of Spring 2015

Spring is coming ! Spring is coming !

While we were enjoying breakfast this morning, Amanda & I were delighted to watch an Australian magpie carry nesting material into a large Eucalyptus tree across the street.  We had just been commenting on how warm it had been for this week just gone, but we thought that perhaps it was because we'd been in the snow at Oberon last weekend.  We are now in the last few days of July, and spring is officially only 4 weeks away, so I guess Spring might be coming early this year.

 

Yet another Welcome swallow update

It's just so lovely - a pair of Welcome swallows roosting in
our carport on a freezing July afternoon. 

We have had a pair of Welcome swallows roosting under our carport every night for several months now.  They successfully nested in our car port late last year, and the chicks fledged on Sunday, 26th October 2014.  

There seems to always be only two individuals each night, and at first they were roosting in the metal channel alongside the nest.  With the temperature plummeting over the last week, they now seem to be roosting exclusively within the previously abandoned nest.  It's snowing like a ripper in the Central West and at Barrington Tops right now, and the wind is icy.  It's blowing from the NW at a constant 20 knots and really feels like it is straight from Antarctica.  Tonight is one of the coldest nights of 2015 so far, and the birds were in the nest by 3:30 pm - much earlier than usual.

It is interesting to make a note of this behaviour.  I expected that once the young had fledged, the nest would be abandoned until next year when the breeding season came around.  I have no way of determining if these are the same birds every night.  I would assume they are, but they are not banded or have any readily identifiable marks.  I can't even say if they are the adults that built the nest, or perhaps two of the young that fledged in October 2014.  But perhaps this old "abandoned" nest might be more important than expected for their survival.