Barn Swallows in flight at Mount Moreland

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Barn Swallows show signs of pre migration behaviour

By Risto Jäntti

A few days ago I saw the first swallow flock of Barn Swallows gathering on a telephone cable near our house. The birds were Barn Swallows and House Martins, around 100 Barn Swallows. Having flown about over the field that noisy and nervous flock disappeared. Most of our swallows have left, only those Barn Swallows still having chicks in their nests are here: 6 Barn Swallow and 4 House Martin pairs. The House Martin chicks will soon be ready to leave their nests, also the chicks in 4 Barn Swallow nests. One Barn Swallow nest has one week old chicks and the last one newly hatched chicks.

The weather recently has been nearly normal for this time of the year: from less than 10 deg at night to over 20 deg C in the daytime. Two nights last week were cold: only 4 deg C. It has been raining practically every day. In Northern Finland there has been nightfrost already several times. The feeling of autumn is already in the air over here...

These are the last weeks the swallows are here to be enjoyed and it feels already sad.

Regards

Risto