Luke 9:
57 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
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I do not think I will be able to post an update everyday, but I thought you might like to see some of the progress of the Barn Swallow nest. I’ve mentioned they have built on our porch before, but have always abandoned it. One year eggs were even laid, but we found them broken on the porch floor one morning.
Learning more about birds, I am not sure what would have done that. Cowbirds take the eggs away from the nest to drop elsewhere and other birds who take eggs for food would have flown off with them. And this location would seem to be safe from any four legged predators. Even with the rough surface of our house, I am not sure what could crawl up the siding. Maybe there’s someone who knows more about critters. ?? The one option that sort of makes sense is maybe the Barn Swallows themselves pushed the eggs out of the nest when they deemed the area unsuitable. ??
I made that wide path out to the front yard today, in hopes to get a picture of the progress. I must have done well- this one Barn Swallow was building and didn’t seem bothered by my presence.
30 May 2012 around 7am
Progress by 5pm, same day.
And look at this!! What a blessing! (Not a great picture, it was taken through glass and a screen.)
Tree Swallows came to investigate the nesting box.
They didn’t stay, but that’s alright. Maybe they won’t find anything else and come back. I’ve decided that if they do come back, we cannot avoid this area totally. We are only doing this for the Barn Swallows because of their attempt year after year; we’d liked them to succeed. If the Tree Swallows are willing to put up with people activity, they will stay. If not, hopefully they’ll find something elsewhere. As much as we enjoy all things feathered, we know we cannot be home to them all.
