Barn Swallows in Ireland

By Craig Robinson

Barn Swallows 3 days out of the nest, the 4 chicks in our back room, they roost on this cable each evening after a day out with the parents

Here the first Swallows arrived 10th April 2011 in the mid afternoon, initially just a lone pair but by early evening there were 12. Significant numbers were here the following day.

Not sure when nest building began but if you trawl through our Facebook page I comment about having to abandon our laundry room. Last year a pair tried to nest in it, we discouraged them by stapling old pillow cases to the ceiling, this year they returned but the pillow stunt didn't fool them. This all happened about a week after nesting started in our outside sheds.

These chicks hatched around the 16th June and left the nest 2 days ago.

In total we have at least 40 nesting pairs on the property.

We are located on the shore of Lough Arrow in the Nortwest of Ireland.

At this stage the young are all out of the nests and seem to spend the day in "flight school" with the parents returning to the nest site (roost close to but not in the nest) in early evening some 2 hours or so before nightfall.