There isn’t going to be a second brood of Swallows, she lost them.
You would think that Dr Dolittle syndrome would be a wonderful thing, if you could see the animals and understand them and know what they were saying just from their voices, wouldn’t you?
So her voice changed. Her song fills my flat from morning till night it is inescapable and has been one of the great joys of this summer.
I went out to look and the whole of the first brood and both parents were swirling around in the air right outside of my front door which is also outside of their nest.
I set up a camera to watch the nest and for over an hour no bird visited the nest. So I reset the camera to cover a wider area. All of the birds were flying in constantly and getting very close to the nest but never making contact and they just kept doing that.
The female started crying. There is a call that she makes it isn’t musical it is repetitive and harsh and sounds like pleading. I have recorded it and I will let you listen in a minute.
The only time that I have heard this call before was when the first brood were fledging. She used this to call for them, to encourage them out of the nest and to come to her, this is how a mother swallow talks to her young.
(the first part of the tape is the other birds chatting, you will know when the mother bird calls)
That is the sound of sadness. She cried constantly yesterday but it has been a bit less today.
I picked up two dead birds from underneath the nest today.
I have no idea what killed them but I think that they died in the nest and were cleaned out today. I don’t think that it was a predator. That’s life. I cleaned up the dead birds in the hope that it would help her to forget them. I like my flat full of happiness not sorrow.
I have been to a lot of trouble to choose the very best flowers that i could find for this good bird. I took these pictures years ago on an old camera and I have photographed these roses many times since but I like the retro look and I think that my pictures express the love that I feel.
Get over it. You are going to Africa.
Sing to me as I sing to you and fill my little flat with joy.
A Tramp in the Woods 
I’m sorry about the dead baby swallows Colin.
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Thanks HJ. Well, that happens, it is the mother bird’s calling that I find distressing. That is not part of their natural repertoire. I guess that she has a natural instinct to feed her brood and she can’t find them so she has to keep looking, I am just wondering how long it will last. Day three now and she is still at it this morning. I love the sound of their chatter, which is lucky because I can’t really escape it, I just want a bit of happy chatter to return 🙂
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It is so tough for birds and their young and I hope that more swallows will be around for you next year. Lovely flower photos.
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Thank you so much 🙂
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Second broods usually do have a much higher failure rate than first, but that doesn’t make it any less cutting to watch happen. One of my favorite musicians wrote an essay a few years ago about how hummingbirds nested in a tree outside his house, and how much watching the brood and waiting for the hatching became entangled with waiting for the impending birth of his own child. Something about birds speaks especially deeply.
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Thanks Maia, It is especially tough for second brood Swallows, they don’t have long to build up their strength for the flight to Africa. I had a wonderful experience with them at dawn this morning. They are still very noisy in the early morning. We had a thunderstorm and amid the crashing of the thunder and the downpour of rain I could still hear the swallows singing their hearts out. I just wish that I had recording gear to capture the sounds. My camera doesn’t do that very well.
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I am sorry to hear about your swallows. We have also experienced some unhappy swallow events here over the years. Our current brood was in danger this week from a magpie. I could hear the swallows creating havoc and went to investigate and when I went into the cowshed where the nest is, there was a magpie that flew out when it saw me. My worry now is that he will return.
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Thanks Joyce, at least the first brood are all okay. It really does look like she is going to try again she has spent the last two days doing up the nest. I will have to wait and see what happens next.
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Good luck!
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