Welcome swallow update

I checked the car port late last night - there was an adult Welcome swallow roosting alongside the nest.  Better still, there were two fledglings roosting together inside the nest.  Thank goodness - the swallows have successfully nested again this year.  Hopefully the other adult was roosting somewhere nearby with more young.

  

An Empty Nest . . .

We returned home from extended leave yesterday to find our Welcome swallows nest is empty.

We are still a bit tired from the flight, so we haven't been out and about in the back yard much yet, but there seems to be little activity around the carport.  I'll have to check when it's dark tonight.  Hopefully they have successfully nested and the offspring fledged just before we got home . . .

Brief Observation - First Eastern koel for Spring 2015

I was just paused to refuel the lawn mower a few moments ago (17:30 Eastern Daylight Savings Time) when the distinctive call of an Eastern koel began to echo around the neighbourhood.

We returned to Casa da Ayre only late yesterday afternoon from 6 weeks holiday - so the Koels may have very well have arrived in the Lake Macquarie area before now.  But nonetheless it is worth publishing a brief note regarding the casual observation of a migratory species.  Spring is definitely here now ! 

Out of curiosity I looked back through my sightings of this species last year - See HERE .  It turns out that last year they arrived on Friday 3rd October - so it's very close to the same time.     

Welcome swallow brooding

Welcome swallow brooding, 29th August 2015

We have been watching our swallows hanging around the carport, zipping around the back yard and roosting in or alongside their old nest for quite a while now.  At the start of this month we thought that surely they would start to breed any moment.  I guess the watched kettle never boils, but at long last it seems the female may be brooding.  When I headed off to work yesterday morning they seemed particularly vocal, and we have noticed one of the swallows has been sitting in the nest all day. 

We are walking on air at the moment, for a number of reasons, and this is just the icing on the cake.  Casa da Ayre is a very happy place indeed.         

Our Welcome swallows are nesting again - ALREADY !

I mentioned in my last post that we thought Spring was coming early this year.  I am almost certain of it now.  Our Welcome swallows have been bolstering the lining of their nest with nylon "fleece" from the dog bed last week.  We were delighted to watch them constantly zipping in-and-out of our carport this weekend, and spending longer each time in their nest as the day passed. 

I am expecting to see a swallow sitting in the nest all day again soon - I feel that nesting is imminent.  According to www.arkive.org (See - http://www.arkive.org/welcome-swallow/hirundo-neoxena)  " ... the breeding season of the Welcome swallow runs from July to April, with a peak in breeding activity between September and October. Breeding tends to occur earlier inland than on the coast ...".  So we are definitely right at the beginning of their known breeding period, and I am watching events unfold with interest.

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.