Egad. I think you’ve done enough, hon, paid some dues. I hereby give you official permission to NOT rescue them. Too bad you evidently missed the window of opportunity to get in there with the garden rake once the first batch had fledged, but how could you know that they’d elect to raise another batch this late in the year? File for future reference, I guess.
Anyway, no, don’t even consider rescuing this batch. Think of it as Darwinian selection in action: birds shouldn’t be raising second broods this late in the year in NoDak, so by not rescuing their younguns, you’d actually be doing the barn swallow gene pool a huge favor.
Just let it ride. They pays their money and they takes their chances, same’s the rest of us.
Oh, I stared at the old nest for a full week. They didn’t return, so I got a hoe and knocked the damn thing down last week. Yesterday, while washing windows, I saw the NEW nest, and eggs, in the slightly more hidden corner of the porch.
Little fuckers are going to be all pitiful and helpless and cold and alone. Since I’m a certified Grade-A soft hearted sucker, I will try to save them. I won’t succeed, but I’ll try, and I’ll bawl like a baby when they die.
Fuck. Mother Nature is a heartless bitch. I know, I know . . . but I’m an hopeless idiot.
I’m sorry MadPansy, but you made me laugh do hard I scared my dog!
I have barn swallows in my garage/shop/smoking room. They are saucy little bastards, but I love them for their amazing mosquito eating abilities.
My only advise is play loud music, and wear a hat! I love the country.
You can repel them with yeast. A friend of mine had problems with the swallows in his horse barn trying to build nests in the horses’ manes. His vet told him to shampoo their manes with brewer’s yeast. He did, and the swallows stopped bothering the horses. It works because yeast is yeast and nest is nest, and never the mane shall tweet.
Loved it … even before the marvelous rephrasing. And then … well, let’s say I had a degraded upbringing. My father loved puns, the smellier, the better. His eyes would dance as he was about to make one.
Y’know, that’s fascinating. Brewer’s yeast has a mild deterrent effect on fleas. Before the really good, reasonably safe anti-flea preparations came along, a lot of dog breeders/exhibitors (me among them) useta give their dogs brewer’s yeast tablets (or sprinkle the loose stuff on their food) for that purpose.
Based on the rules WRT bird habitat, nests, etc., as quoted in this thread, I don’t see why MadPansy64 couldn’t put brewer’s yeast all around the nest - or even in it. Think of it as the humane solution. After all, there aren’t going to be any flying insects for the new ones to catch, even if they survive to fledging! How could she rear them? What could she feed them? How would they survive the winter? The parents will be migrating, won’t they? Wikipedia says they (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) are “strongly migratory”, and winter in the Caribbean and South America.
I didn’t think birds - other than vultures, buzzards and others on Ma Nature’s cleanup crew - had that much of a sense of smell. Anybody reading this who knows something about avian senses/physiology, and willing to comment?
FarmerChick I have a hat. It’s easier to whine, and then use the back door than to remember where I put it.
freckafree That was just awful! I love it!
tygerbryght I don’t have a plan, since I’m still in the bitch, whine and sulk stage about the new nest.
We’re out in the country, where there are always bugs. Horses, cows and pigs shit year round, and even on the very coldest days there will be a sluggish fly or 2 in the barn. There are also a couple of pet stores in town where I could get clean mealworms and crickets, if I had to. I can’t imagine my cats (or my husband, for that matter) dealing well with having barn swallows in the house for even a moment.
At my old house (in Montana) there was a female robin who wouldn’t leave until her last batch of babies were big enough to fly south – in mid-December.
I am afraid that, unlike robins, swallows won’t hang around to finish raising the chicks, and then the poor damn things will die right in front of my eyes. Don’t swallows have an inflexible timetable for migration? Or only the swallows of Capistrano?
Duck Duck Goose Thanks for the link, that was cute. I must now name them, of course.
Sheesh. I have a stupid cat inside, and stupid birds out.
Well, if you feel absolutely impelled to raise them baby birds, you needn’t rummage through the manure pile looking for bugs–there are any number of web pages devoted to raising orphaned baby birds (the word “altricial” in the search string helps to eliminate all the hand-raising parrot websites).
To get a better idea of exactly when you can expect your swallows to up stick and start heading south, you can check with any of these people here. They’ll be able to tell you to the week, I’d bet. http://www.audubon.org/chapter/index.php?state=ND
The only thing that works is persistence in removing the nests as fast as they put them up. A single protrusion such as a nail is enough for them to start a nest.
Let’s just say there is a reason they had to leave Las Vegas in a hurry…something about bird abuse and fowl language I believe…but we miss them terribly here.
Perhaps they will stop by Las Vegas again when they escort their swallows to Capistrano.
I know, I know . . . but I’m an hopeless idiot.
His eyes would dance as he was about to make one.