Nesting Birds

I never tire of watching the nesting birds in the smallholding. Year after year, they return to lay their eggs, nurture their young and then fly off to new pastures.

As each year passes, the number of migrating birds increases, and what started out as a couple of nests in a field shelter has now resulted in almost a dozen dotted around the stable, barns, goat houses and several shelters. I can’t deny that they leave a lot of mess once they depart, but the extra work they create does nothing to diminish the joy and fascination I feel watching them.

On my smallholding, I am fortunate to have ground nesting birds along with swallows and swifts, and I have enjoyed seeing the birds return to the nests and breed over the past few years, increasing in numbers. Ground nesting birds, such as Curlews, face danger from disturbance. They can be easily frightened away from their nests, leaving eggs or young unattended, cold and vulnerable to predators such as foxes and crows. From the smallholder’s point of view, special consideration needs to be given to when fields are ploughed, tilled or mowed so as not to disturb these birds.

Swallows are extremely agile birds in flight. Unlike other songbirds, swallows often return to the same colony, sometimes even the same nest, to breed, which is remarkable given the huge distances they travel during migration between the UK and South Africa. As swallows feed on large flies such as horse flies and bluebottles, they are a welcome addition to the smallholding as they help keep these under control around ponies, sheep and other animals.

Swallows nest around April/May, and I have enjoyed watching these beautiful birds build their mud-lined, sup-shaped nests in my animal field shelters, stables and goat houses for several years. They make a tremendous mess with their droppings and provide an additional job of disinfecting after they have left, but they are a joy to watch. The birds are resilient, relentless and determined, and I have spent many hours watching them fly backwards and forwards, feeding and protecting their young.

Swifts are superb flyers. They are streamlined birds with long, curved wings and short, forked tails. They spend around three months of the year, April/May through to August, raising their young in the UK after migrating from Central and Southern Africa. Like swallows, they build their nests on eves and in buildings such as sheds and stables.

About a week or so ago, just as I thought all the young had flown the nests, I spotted a new nest in one of the field shelters, so I guess my bird-watching and shelter-disinfecting days aren’t over yet!