Well, shit. I have no idea when those sneaky stupid little fuckers actually built the new nest, but as of 5:30 pm CST today, there are 2 or 3 naked pink baby swallows who huddle down instead of cheeping at my big ol’ head peering in at them.
Dammit.
Pictures will follow, as soon as I find the usb cable. Dammit.
Oh, lordy. I feel for you, MP. (North Central ND here.) I’m glad they just stick to our outbuildings.
I have been known to carry a tennis racket with me. Yes, they get THAT aggressive. Our poor cats will skulk across the yard while getting divebombed.
Persistence in knocking the nests down is good. You can also try hanging some pie tins or aluminum cans from strings from the porch roof. Gaudy as heck, but might make them go look for other nesting places.
One of my neighbors said they put a ladder for the cat under each new nest on their porch. It took a while, but they did learn eventually. (YMMV.)
Any idea when the bastards fly south? I left a message (thanks, DDG) at the ND Audubon number, but haven’t heard back yet.
An elderly neighbor said painting the porch “ceiling” sky blue will bother them enough they won’t build next year. I’ve got sky-ish blue paint, and I’m really hoping that particular Old Wife is telling me a true tale.
Next year, starting in early April, I swear I will patrol all corners of the porch twice a day, and will destroy all building attempts immediately. There is a barn, a huge old shed (think 4-car, two story garage type “shed”), and a structurally-sound but abandoned (mosquito infested, unsafe steps) gazebo within a few hundred yards. Why the hell do they insist on the front porch?
Oh, dammit, let’s be honest. If the blue fucking paint doesn’t work, I’ll be sneaking out the back door again next June, I will freak out again next August when the second nest is laid again, and I will whine to all of you when the poor babies are abandoned and die, again. 
Reviving with new pictures of the second nest, and the surviving baby.
If the weather stays mild for another two weeks, the little family may survive to fly south. Most of the other barn swallows have left the area – only the Porch Family, the Big Barn Family, and the Tool Shed Family remain. Apparently, some North Dakota Barn Swallows have a more flexible migration date than the Swallows of Capistrano.
The adults and adolescents of each family huddle together on the edge of the nests at night after dark, and defend their territory, but don’t appear to help the parents feed the nestlings.
You know, this is interesting. I don’t doubt you at all - lord knows I’ve had my head whacked innumerable times in San Francisco by nesting Brewer’s Blackbirds annoyed that I’m walking down the street within 100 yards of their nest. But the Barn Swallows that nest at my job seem remarkably mellow. Might be where I encounter them I guess ( they nest below me, as I usually get near them walking across a catwalk ). But generally I’ll get within ten feet of their nests and they’ll just give me a careful eye and otherwise ignore me. Habituation, perhaps - we’ve had nesting swallows for years and every year’s brood has grown up seeing us strolling on by ( we’ve never had more than a couple pairs nesting at any given moment ).
Last season we had a pair of ravens nest on a mess of pipes in a truck bay, maybe 18 feet off the ground. They successfully raised one youngster and all three went from very wary to very habituated quite quickly. But then ravens are pretty bright and my co-worker fed them peanuts.
Oh, yeah, they can get very aggressive. I suspect it is an individual trait, rather than species wide. The Tool Shed family is calmer than the Porch family, and the Big Barn family is totally, like, copacetic, ya know, dude? The Big Barn and Porch families both have people in their space several times a day, but the Tool shed family sees a human maybe once a week. Tool Shed & Big Barn Families both have the nests very high on a wall, but then again, I put 2 Big Barn babies back in the nest without getting attacked or even fluttered at. Dragging the big ladder out is a PITA, but they’re so CUTE . . . and I’m a world class sucker.
Porch Family’s sole surviving baby decided to try out his/her wings today. Those wings are* just* good enough to keep out of my reach, but not quite good enough to make it back up to the nest. Dammit. Britney & Geraldo appear to be trying to get him/her to fly back up there on his own, but so far, he/she seems to have some steering issues.
While I was fussing, wondering out loud if the fish net would hurt the baby, and yaddayadda, when Hubby snarled “What’s your real name?” (I just blinked at him, having no idea where he was going with this) “It’s Dawna, NOT Darwin!” Point taken. Baby Swallow will either be fine, or not, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.
Right?