Making them relocate away from my front porch, to be precise.
While I like birds, I could do without the hysterical swooping and hair pulling. GiantFreakin Marine doesn’t find it at all charming.
I don’t want to kill the babies, so I am really hoping that I can just knock down the nest after they fly, and before batch #2 is laid. Any chance of that? There is a big old barn not 100 yards away, as well as other outbuildings. They won’t be homeless, if they just look around a bit.
I’m reasonably sure hatching began today – quiet yesterday, cheeping at any movement began this morning. How long before they fly the nest? How many nests to swallows lay each summer?
I did google, but most of the sites are concerned with attracting swallows, rather than time frames for evictions.
They probably won’t have time to build or find a new nest in time for a second brood (if there is one coming), if you destroy the existing one at the right moment - I’m not saying you should hold off until the second brood has flown, only trying to realistically examine the situation.
Well, crap. If they do have more than one brood, that is. We’re in northern North Dakota, so I have to assume breeding season is relatively short. I do have all winter to find ways of avoiding the issue next spring, so that’s something. Not much, but something.
Damn my weak google-fu. I know what they look like, I do NOT want to attract them, I am already sad about the lack of big old barns, so why can’t I find anything about how damn long it takes for the babies to leave home, and whether Mommy and Daddy Swallow will want to use the nest again this year?
I should be more patient, but between dive-bombing swallows by the front door and a territorial pheasant at the back, I’m getting just a bit tired of horny birds .
For federally funded projects, you have to knock the nests down within three days after they’re built or it’s considered to be a ‘take’ according to NEPA. Once the nest it built, you’re stuck until they stop using them. That means that if they brood twice, the project is on hold until they’re finished.
Not sure what rules apply to residences. Could be completely different. If you’re looking for information, try US Fish and Wildlife or your local state agency.
For next year, knocking them down with the hose within three days of them being built should be completely legal.
I couldn’t find any information on their behaviour in your locality, but the species has been observed to raise second broods in some places (West Virginia was often mentioned), not others (such as California) - neither of these locations is particularly helpful, I expect.
-I always find this incredible - just a few weeks from being tiny naked pink chicks to becoming adolescent birds capable of flight. It’s a testament to the nutritional value of insects, if nothing else.
Perfect. Thank you. I’m a google-dumbass, so thank you very much for being sweet and not pointing that out.
Yllaria Bummer. Looks like we’ll be using the back door, or be attacked until <counts on fingers> early September. Hmmm. Anyone know how to make nice-nice with a territorial male pheasant so I can get in the back yard?
Wait. September? That’s too long – it should be cold and maybe even snowy here by then. Except it frosted last week, which obviously didn’t bother the parents or eggs, so first probably won’t bother the young’uns too badly either, so never mind. Which brings me back to making friends with the evil pheasant in the back yard.
I swear, if that moose gets any closer, I’m moving back to Montana where the wildlife all know to stay offa my lawn!
Well, you’re not required to allow them to raise two broods. The young fledge in 24 days, you said they started hatching today, so call it 28 days from today they’ll be fledged, call it July 11. So you only have to observe the nest closely at least once a day for the next month, looking for the little heads raised up above the nest edge being fed by the parents, and the day you don’t see those little heads (a la this picture here), get in there with a garden rake or the hose and knock the nest down. That’ll be your only window of opportunity, I’m thinkin’.
…except that pheasant season in North Dakota doesn’t start until October 11. Unless she can get some kid to shoot it October 4 when Youth season starts.
But she doesn’t have to resort to shooting it. According to this, the overly aggressive behavior should stop once breeding season is over. And according to this, the breeding season is April-June for NoDak.
So this isn’t behavior that’s gonna continue all summer and into the fall. Until then, I’d take a broom out there with me and whack it when it came at me. There’s no reason you can’t defend yourself from a chicken.
Yes, I loves me a broom! They’re not bad for defending against geese, either.
The pheasant and I have compromised. When he struts around eating bugs, rather than attacking me, I don’t try to smack him with the broom, shovel, or rake I’m holding, nor do I kick him.
If you laid a trail of corn kernels from the yard into the kitchen and then into the oven, would that count as hunting, if the pheasant chose to follow them?
If it helps, try to remember that Mommy and Daddy Swallow are catching thousands and thousands of mosquitos every day to feed those loudmouths. That yammering is what prompts Mom and Dad to go sweep your yard’s airspace for the umpteenth time in an hour.
I don’t mind the noise, it’s the hair pulling that bothers me.
Between the screaming chicks and the swooping parents, my sweet but stupid cat is staying out from underfoot for the first time in weeks. I appreciate their birdy efforts.
My front porch is bird-free again. They flew away Friday (August 1, 2008) morning. I will remove the nest immediately before the house is repainted (probably Labor Day weekend), since the parent swallows don’t seem to have any further interest in the now empty nest.
(BTW some of the picture dates are iffy. New camera, I’m a dumbass, etc etc)
Awwwww, they are so adorable!!! I don’t think I have ever seen a barn swallow IRL and I didn’t realize how cute they are. Good for you! And thanks for the photos.
I didn’t know they’d be cute, either! The first set of hatchlings . . . disappeared before they got cute, but the four later babies charmed me from the first day they popped their big mouths over the edge of the nest.
I have chimney swifts that nest in my chimney every year, but I can’t see them, unlike your swallow babies. I did find a chimney swift cam this year, though, so I now have some idea of what goes on with their nests.
Those fucking birds have laid another batch of damn eggs, and are, once again, freaking right the fuck out if I have the audacity to walk within 50 yards of their damn precious nest – which just happens to be on my front porch. :mad:
Next year, I’m gonna make it a mission to destroy their little building projects twice a fucking day until the hair-pulling, shitty little bastards fly away forever.
Please, keep your fingers crossed that winter comes late to North Dakota this year, because I don’t want to even contemplate how to rescue the little poopers from a North Dakota winter.
