Swallow Watch

The swallows are growing. And growing bold. They now believe the porch is theirs by rights. The parents dash out of the nest when the door opens and they start dive bombing, swooping, and squawking at us furiously whenever we appear. I've sat out on the front steps to see how close they are willing to get. The closest so far is about a foot from my face, full speed, before they bank away.

At the point the above pictures were taken we had only heard the baby birds and found the tiny shells on the ground below the nest.

Then they started peeking up over the edge of the nest this time last week.

And they've made quite a mess of things. We get to clean off the bird poop today that has accumulated under the nest. And they've found something sticky to keep their dead bug pantry close by on the corners of the lamp. It's quite ingenious.

Walking around the neighborhood, I've checked every porch lamp and it seems we are the only ones in the vicinity that have been deemed worthy of nesting.

So this morning I decided to take the video camera and see if I could capture "When Tiny Songbirds Attack" for you.

Oddly, I didn't get any video.

Because they didn't move.

I opened the door just a bit to see them:

Now, I see at least three birds here and two of them look grown. And they just stare at me. So I begin to wonder if this is how fast the babies grow in the space of a week. Surely not. . . And then another swallow comes swooping over, gets fussed at by the bird on the right, and leaves. You can just see the edge of him taking off in the picture below. And THAT looks like a baby bird with his mouth open in the center. So are we having domestic trouble? Is the visiting swallow a rival? Where are the other babies? Squashed in that tiny nest underneath? I am intrigued.

So I step fully out onto the porch, thinking this will set off the aforementioned attack.

Nope. We just have a staring contest for a few minutes and then she flies away, not fussing or returning.

to be continued. . .