The Swallows return to Hamburg.

Super pics Adel!

Thanks for sharing!

Mariyn

Muddylou................I was bored this winter so I made some different kinds to see if the birds preferred a certain type............This is a new one I put up yesterday hoping to entice some Purple Martins.

Nice job adel! Where do you get your plans for the boxes?

Pelle.....I improvise on plans I find listed in google searches

Your boxes are great. You should think about Ebay! Or isn't DG planning an auction site?

I'll be interested to know if you get purple martins. I've always wanted to establish a martin colony, but our yard has too many tall trees....

Have your TRES picked housing yet?

Muddylou................theweather has been so mixed up and cold here I think the flying bugs go away and so do the swallows. They will be here at the houses when it's sunny, but when it turns cold and nasty they leave. hope the weather gets better.

It does seem like it dragging on doesn't it adel?

Soon enough we'll be complaining its too hot! :-)

adelbertcat: great pictures and I also love the return of the swallows.
Have you ever played 'catch' with them?
If you have a source for small downy duck feathers or other 'fluff', I even use 'cat hair' saved from
winter brushing, find a high spot with a bit of wind and toss the 'fluff' into the air....
in no time at all the swallows will come diving for it.
If you get really good at it, they will even take it right out of your hand!!

They love to line their nests with fluff, and it is such fun to have them diving all around you.
Absolutely my most favorite game in the world. LOL

CasCadeMom.........................thanks I'll give it a try.

It really is a wonderful experience. Just remember the fluff has to be able to loft into the wind
long enough for them to catch it .... yet not so fast that it is blown away. A gentle breeze is best.

I wish you JOY ! and luck.

Adel - talk about baaaaaaad weather......we got 8 inches of snow yesterday!!!! How wrong is THAT. Well, I will live vicariously through you birders that actually have returning birds until mine show up in a month or two....

Cascade Mom - cool idea! I put out hair for nesting birds (get it from my own brush & my salon) but never thought of your idea............I will have PLENTY of time to mull it over while we wait for the snow to exit..........

The hair should be short like 3 inches otherwise the baby birds feet will get wrapped up in it and they won't be able to climb out of the box or even worse things.

the birds LOVE my dog's hair. And let me tell you, I have a bunch of it on the floor!!!

Of the nests that I have cleaned out ....Pelletory is correct. The balled up or short hairs
get 'stuffed' into the nest and meshed with twigs etc.

Fortunately my cats have hair less than 2 inches and fluffy enough to ball up into tufts.
The downy bird feathers are just as short or shorter.

Wish you all luck in 'playing' with your swallows.

It's warmed up the last two days and the swallow are active again. I think this house has been picked by one pair.

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How wonderful Adel...I would be so excited to have these beautiful visitors!

oh my goodness, they are beautiful.. I didn't know they would use birdhouses.. I have to make some.. They are beautiful.. I love your photos. THank you.

There are a couple here with the yellow chest. They were here last year.. They have been looking the nest they made last year, I hope they use it again.

Oh thats great adel! Can't wait to see the progress!

adelbertcat, Great to see your pictures, we are scanning the skies for the return of ours. Vernon Laux who is a reliable ornithologist and does a show for the Cape and Islands on public radio reported seeing one today. But not yet at our house, but they always come. Can't wait. Patti

The Swallows were very active this morning. (Here's three wing shots).

#2

and #3

I am so jealous! We had our first sighting of a couple scoping out a nest yesterday.
But we are still too cold and snowy for them to stick around.
It is such a late spring this year.

Great shots - thanks for sharing.

Nice flight shots adel!

They were all over the sky this morning, made me dizzy (or should I say dizzier) trying to get them in the view finder.

HA!! Adel, just put that camera on continuous mode and don't let up!!! hee hee! YES, i'm a continuous mode junkie.

Lovely!! No sign of swallows here yet, but did spot the first bluebirds today!

Winging it on a very grey morning.

The swallows are still checking things out.

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and still winging it.

Nice shots adel! I just love these birds!

Really nice Adel...aren't they just the most fun bird to watch! I still can't catch them in flight...too fast for me! Do yours chit-chat back and forth and then open their mouth wide open and make a funny noise? The Barn Swallows do that and I laugh everytime!!

dellrose.........they do a lot of high pitched chittering.........yesterday when I was trying to get some in flight pics I noticed that directly above me and at a very high altitude there was a large flock of swallows (about twice the size of what shows in the pic). They stayed there for quite awhile. There must have been a large number of flying insects caught in a thermal and they were feeding on them, At least that's my theory.