I Love Birds, But...

One year we had a pair of barn swallows build a nest and raise a family in our barn.  I even blogged about them.  They were kind of cute, but messy and I lamented about this to my brother.  He warned me that they would ALL come back next year.  Now, he is very smart and even worked with raptors and other birds way back in his early days.  This was long before he became a high mucky-muck in the DOE, and NO he didn't have anything to do with Solyndra, but still I hoped he was wrong!

Each year we clean off where they nested last time and put wood blocks or nails or something to encourage them to go else where.  We have about 10 acres of trees.  They are not limited to our barn!  But my brother was right and each year we get more and more.  Once again my main complaint is the mess.

I LIKE hearing them whistle when I get to the barn in the morning.  I am amused by their antics as they fly out of the barn and try to lure me away from their young.  I am grossed out by the droppings EVERYWHERE.

This year they were particularly inventive.  One nest is between the open barn door and the wall of the barn.  I can hear them in there and see some of the hay they used to build it, but I can't see the nest itself.  Of course this means I can't close the barn door until the babies hatch and fly away.  I don't want to crunch up some wee babies.

There is another nest that I can hear and not see.  It seems they have gone between the sides of the barn and the roof.  there is a small gap.  And then they have built the nests on top of the soffits on the eaves.  I can hear them up there peeping away.  I can see the parents fly around and convince me not to look behind the curtain (Wizard of Oz reference), but I can't see any of the babies.  And they are all where I can't get to the babies.  So I can't even get a barn cat to get rid of them or to convince them not to return.


And then I'll have to talk Lee into using the pressure washer next time they leave.  No point in it now.  This is from just a few days

Oh, well.  They are cute, I guess.

We Have Been Invaded!

The invasion has begun. My brother, who is a big cheese in the Department of Energy, but not one of the stinky kinds, and is also a biologist, has informed me that it has only started. I have to completely obliterate all evidence of the invasion or it will only get worse each year.

Last year barn swallows kept building nests on top of the fluorescent light fixtures. Lee kept knocking them down and eventually they went away. What we did not know is that they come back and can smell where they have been. So now they are back and have two nests, but only one with babies. I wouldn't knock down a nest with babies in it and a good thing, too, as Roland ( my brother) tells me that would be illegal. Not that anyone would know what I do in my little barn in the middle of nowhere. But I still wouldn't want to do anything illegal...or at least I wouldn't want to get caught!!




Roland told me that I have to completely obliterate the evidence....poop and nests, as they can smell their spit in the nest and the poop, well, good luck with that. There are HORSES in this barn and massive piles of processed hay are a daily event. Preposterous pile of processed ....OK I ran out of Ps. So if they can follow their noses (beaks?) back to this barn, we have to do some serious cleaning. I told Roland that I thought we could build little blocks of wood with nails poking through the top to discourage them. He said they can build nests in corners. We have to get rid of everything or parents and babies will come back. They probably will anyway, but we will make the effort.




But not now. Now we have cute little babies. They are very quiet for baby birds. No constant peeping. I guess that is a survival thing. They have feathers, now, so I guess they will be leaving soon. Every time we go into the barn, the parents come swooping out. They fly around outside in great agitation.




A few days ago Lee found one of the just fledged babies on the ground outside the barn. Flying lessons must have commenced. RJ was VERY interested in it. Lee had to put him away and shoo the bird away from the mouth of the barn. He flew in short hops into the taller grass. The next evening I saw that all three babies were back in the nest, so I guess he managed to get back home on his own. They are getting big so the nest is getting crowded. I think the teenagers will have to move on soon. Empty nest syndrome, here we come. I don't think it will be the problem for me that some people have.