Risto and the first Barn Swallow
by Risto Jäntti

With the weather having started to warm up after a cold period it was just a matter of time when the first swallows would arrive.  Yesterday morning ( 7 May 2011 ) at 9.04 I was in the yard when I thought I had heard a Barn Swallow call.  Then I saw the bird, it flew over the lake towards our house and slipped directly into the barn.  I went after it and saw it sitting on a beam high near the roof, next to a nest.  The bird was silent and looked exhausted, no wonder.  Swallow-crazy as I am, I was moved into tears by the arrival of that tiny long-distance traveller.  Then I held a little wellcoming speech to the swallow, promising to do everything in my power to ensure the well-being and succesful nesting of our swallows.  So let us hope that also this year predators will stay out of the barn.  Later that day I saw the swallow every now and then flying about tvittering over the yard. In the evening after the sunset the bird was sitting in the same place as in the morning when I saw it for the first time.  That confirmed that the swallow was one of our swallows, not a passer-by. 

Keeping predators off the barn is maybe my most important task concerning the swallow protection, and that can sometimes be a challenge.  I have even been sleeping in the barn to prevent magpies from trying to get an easy meal of swallow chicks early in the morning.  If I slept in the house, I could do nothing to prevent that.

Swallows do not certainly need me in their nesting, but I have tried to help them even in that for instance by bringing mud, feathers and crushed eggshells (good for swallow egg formation) into their reach.  Janne said a mixture of ground eggshells and fish scales would be ideal.

The weather will be warming up day by day and I greet that with pleasure.  Everything is starting to grow up very fast, as if plants knew the summer ahead in some weeks will be short.  Nightfrost is still a threat, old people say only after June the 10th there should be no danger of it.

Regards

Risto and the first swallow