Barn Swallows in our garage.

This is not my photo but we do have a barn swallow nesting in our garage about a plug in outlet. We have to put a piece of plywood on our car to cover the windshield and protect it from poop. There are no young ones as yet. I hope they hatch soon, and grow up and fly away to poop elsewhere. There seem to be less barn swallows every year but there are still quite a few tree swallows and many purple martins since there are quite a few martin houses around.

Tree swallows are back..

The other day I cut the grass at our other property. I notice that there is a pair of tree swallows in the birdhouse that is on the old clothesline pole. They seem not to be bothered too much by my cutting the grass. A pair seems to nest there every year for several years now.

There are a few tree swallows around but barn swallows seem not too common anymore. However there are oodles of purple martins. Many people have special birdhouses for them.

Purple martins

There are several places in town with purple martin bird houses. On a recent walk I noticed that the large house in the small local park is almost full. The martins tend to be a bit on the noisy side but they cannot match the crows for volume.

More Martins gathering.

Yesterday we went shopping to Rossburn. There was a scene that could have been out of the Hitchcock movie The Birds. There were droves of purple martins festooning the wires and lightstandards and swooping and diving everywhere. The martins gathered and disappeared already from our village. Maybe Rossburn is a central gathering point. Martins certainly must not like to travel alone.

There are still humming birds at the feeders. Enough that there are often fights but they are less common than a week or so ago. I do not see any adult males so perhaps the adults go before the kids! Maybe males go scouting on ahead.

The regular feeder is busy. There have been no new birds but what is lacking in variety is offest by numbers. The chickadee (photo) is still a regular visitor. They will stay all winter.

Still quite a few hummingbirds: Martins may be gone.

I haven't seen any purple martins since I saw big flocks forming the other day. I guess they are already on their way south.

Yesterday we went out to a farm and had a big pig roast (lechon). At the farm I saw many barn swallows sitting on telephone wires in the yard. When we got back home the regular bird feeder was empty with all the seeds ejected onto the sidewalk and ground! I filled it back up again. I noticed just a while ago that mostly house sparrows were at the feeder. They are the worst for spilling seed on the ground. Usually there is a mixture of birds with pine siskins predominant.

There are still quite a few humming birds visiting the feeder, enough tbat often a bird will be chased off by a competitor.