Schmidlin Angus Farms

Cowpies to Treetops

In the Barn

Full Condos

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barn swallow nestsLooking up just before walking into the show barn for feeding, I noticed the mud swallows have been very busy lately.

The sky is filled morning and night with frantic activity. Seemingly hundreds of swallows have been dipping into the drying mud puddles and damp areas around the swamp and river for building materials before rushing back to the show barn where they put their building acumen to the test.

Bungalows are being produced at an alarming rate, the birds are in a hurry because when the mud dries so does the ability to build quickly. With the females nearly ready to deposit eggs, the rush is on and each mud structure has a mommy nearly built in while other females try to sneak in with hopes to take over a better house than what she escaped from.

I am extremely happy that the birds are finding the barn a good place to build rather than the ledge under the gutters of the house.

 

2 thoughts on “Full Condos”

  • Bonnie Shumaker
    June 1, 2021 at 6:59 am
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    Love those swallows! They keep up bug-free (almost) up here. How is a mud swallow different from the barn and tree swallows that we have?

    • Thank goodness that Bonnie not only asked the question, but she answered it also!

      Google tells me it’s a barn swallow that builds mud nests. That is true to form in our barn – thankfully they have never tried the eaves of our house. Interesting that there is native mint. That’s new to me. The only mint we have in our woods is the lemon mint my mother threw in the woods as she was trying to eliminate it from her garden. I learned from her to never plant lemon mint – but I do have some spearmint which is not nearly so pushy.

      I have the best readers!

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