Watch Out Swallows About

On our Smallholding one of my favorite ways to unwind on a nice summers evening is to sit outside with a beer and a fag and watch all the Swallows flying around the sky.

To night is such a night and I am sat outside with my beer and gazing skywards at all the Swallows darting around catching flys and twisting around in all directions. It is impossible to count them as they just move to fast, but I would guess at around 40-50 it has been a good year for them and so far we have had hatchings in our coal shed, the old pig pens (our smallholding was a commercial pig farm years ago) also hatchings in our big agriculture shed, and our garage.

During the breeding season we leave the doors open for the swallows and you have to be careful when entering the buildings as a swallows swoop in and out just missing you.

I am really fond of the swallows they are great little characters, when not flying around they can be seen perched around our courtyard chattering away to themselves. The swallows are always here first and when they arrive we class it as the official start to summer and when they have gone we say summer is over.

At the Smallholding we also have 4-5 House Martin nests these birds arrive later than the swallows and the young ones are later in leaving the nest, house martins do tend to make a bit of a mess but we just accept it as part of life here and have a good clean up when they have gone.

Wow as Im sat here a Barn Owl has just flown over the field that backs onto our land it is a truly magnificant bird and is a frequent visitor because the grass is always long and a great place for mice and voles which are the owls staple diet.

So far this year on my Bird Table we have had sparrows,blackbirds,thrushes, chaffinches, bullfinches, goldfinches, the usual crows, jackdaws,starlings, also greenfinches, moorhens, pheasants, blue tits,great tits, long tailed tits,yellow hammers, pied wagtail and a few others I dont know the name of.

We have a resident Moorhen popuation on the Smallholding on our 2 ponds during the breeding season there can be up to 25 of them all raiding the chicken feeders the duck food and of course the bird table. To help the Moorhens this year I have let the ponds vegetation and reeds grow unchecked and Im sure this has helped. We use to have Water Voles on one of the ponds and I am trying to encourage the return of them.

Well I must go in now as I feel the need for another beer, Sharons at work till 10 oclock so while the cats away as they say.