Swallows Fledging

Yesterday morning our telephone wire to the house was suddenly occupied by a dozen or so Swallows, many of them young fledglings calling to be fed. I found the second image in my archives; it  was taken on August 5th 2008 and I thought about all the generations that would have visited Toft since Swallows used to nest in our garage (now our bedroom!!). They nested in the garage every year from when we moved 'up the road' in 2000 till the garage was converted in 2013. Since then, there have always been Swallows in the small holding up Mill Lane. After about an hour, they all flew off going south so I guess are starting the long migration.

Last of the Summer ......

My gardening efforts were interrupted yesterday morning by the noise of a flock of around 30 swallows flying around and landing on the television aerials and trees nearby. Down tools and up camera for a session with these wonderful birds presumably having their last feeds before undertaking the flight to Africa. It is more than 10 years since we had a nesting pair in our garage (image 3, 2007) - unfortunately we had to evict them when we needed to convert the garage to a bedroom as our family size increased. The last image shows one of the youngsters taking a nap - it is most likely it is a descendent of our swallow family.

Slimbridge Visit 2

We spent our morning at Slimbridge in the hide overlooking South Lake and watched a flock of Black-tailed Godwits, Geese, Ducks and newly arrived Swallows and Sand Martins

Norfolk Tour - Welney WWT Reserve

Welcome to Norfolk to Jan and David from one cute and very small jumping spider and a rather muddy swallow. This was the first stop on our tour round some of Norfolk's bird reserves. Beautiful warm sunny day with enough birds to keep us occupied all day - Reed Warblers, Reed Bunting, Black-Tailed Godwit, Marsh Harrier, Lapwing, Peregrine and Heron (with  lots of nesting Avocets)

Late Swallow Brood at Welney Wildfowl Trust Centre

While many Swallows are getting ready for their migration to Africa, this pair have a quite young brood in one of the hides. Not grat photos as very cark, but good to get the feeding action and the ejection of a faecal pellet. Very smart bee (ID to follow) and  a Hobby with a mouse(140mm lens!) - I thought it was a Kestrel.

Hirundines at Kingcombe Lodge Lakes

 A definite challenge trying to capture the moment when the Swallows and House Martins touch the surface of the Lake to pick up water. Great fun as they do great acrobatic tricks as they emerge.