The Nest
 

First three days of the build


.



.




.

Hi there,
Can you tell us more please?

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but do you have a cormorant building at nest at your place?

Can you share where this photo is taken from? It is a horizontal surface, like a window edge?

Do I see lumps of mud? If so, then this may be a practice nest of robins. At this time of year, there are fledglings, working with parents and learning how to make nests. They will often make 3 or more near each other as practice. The parents may have a second brood and the teens from the first brood this season may help feed the new nestlings and also practice making nests.

I am reminded of a story our mail carrier told me recently. She lives in the "country" --a rural area. When she drove home from work one night a robin made a nest on her front tire in the wheelwell of her SUV. She removed it, and the next day another was there in the same spot! LOL

Robins line the nest with mud. And they typically make nests in low areas, and not high up. This is because the fledglings are large and can't fly well at first when they outgrow the nest size.

I would like to see more of this project, so please keep posting your photos.... ;)

Day 4 and it is now starting to take the shape of a nest ! I have also included an images to show where the nest is and give some scale, I would imagine someone will now be able to take a guess at what type of bird is building this!

.



.

Thanks for the new photos.... the presence of the mud suggests a robin.

How is the bird getting into your garage?


.


Just type into Google "Robin nest" and click images. you see all types but most have mud holding them together. Robin chicks get quite large and I guess the mud strengthens the whole structure for them.

Here is a photo of a newly fledged robin sitting on my plant bench and resting waiting for a parent to bring food. (I keep my seedlings and flowers for upNorth on this bench until we leave and take them with us. There are no nurseries up there to buy from late in the summer.)

Thanks for the update.

Nest is certainly taking shape now.

I have no idea, but I'll go with "barn swallow" even though I've never seen one. lol

This link answers many common questions about Robins' nests.


.

Well Done ! indeed it is a "Swallow" (barn swallow is an american term for the same bird)

They are the most amazing of birds and one of my favourites. They winter in southern Africa and make the 7000 mile journey in the spring to where I live in Scotland where they raise their young before returning in the Autumn to Southern Africa.

The pair that are responsible for the nest in this thread have already raised one brood this year and this is their second nest. The first brood of four left the nest on the 19th June, they hung around the house for the first few days being fed (sadly one went missing on day one, so only three now) they then disappeared with the parents for over a week just occasionally returning in the evenings. Then last week the parents started the second nest - the three young do still keep returning and are now highly accomplished flying machines, clearly feeding themselves now. They may actually help the parents feed the next brood, however this is very rare and I have only twice seen it happen before.

we cut a hole above the door that gives them full access.

I was a little confused with your comments regarding the Robin, our Robin (in Scotland) is a very different bird to the "American Robin, in fact after reading up about it the American Robin is indeed quite similar to our Swallow, although I guess you will have Swallows too and probably know them by the name "Barn Swallow"

Anyway back to the nest, they have been very busy building again today and as you can see it is getting there - I would guess this time next week we should have eggs..


.

There are American Robins in UK... but they are not common.

The swallow nests I have seen are more mud and less grass/twigs. Yours must be different in construction.

Swallows here pick much more precarious locations for their nests, often hanging on nothing..but attached to walls with the mud.

Your nest is on a horizontal surface which here is a definite characteristic of robins --who also hang around people with some comfort.

I've drawn many nests during my life.(I also have collected some). They are all very interesting.

I'm in Australia, so didn't have a clue really. :o
Not sure I've ever seen a Robin or a Swallow where I've lived.

mrsD, once again, that is a most precious drawing.

first feather added

.

Saturday was a very quiet day with nothing added to the nest, the two Swallows seemed to be away for most of the day, always a worry when they do that - has something happened to them, have they abandoned the nest.

Then Sunday they were back and we were regularly treated throughout the day to the spectacular of the pre mating flying extravaganza; they will chase each other with amazing speed and agility, the lead bird trying to out manoeuvre the other with high speed, sudden turns, and extremely close passes between the house and car - and the whole time its mate will keep only a few inches behind. I presume its the female testing to see if the male is good enough to farther her children!

And Monday we have the first egg, I would guess we will have another 3 or 4 eggs over the next 3 or 4 days then she will start to sit. Hopefully I will get to see a bit more of there stunning flying acrobatics.


.

That's incredible. Such a pretty egg too.

Thanks for posting!

Four eggs laid and now sitting - we had an egg laid on mon, tue, thur and friday - then it would appear she has started to sit saturday afternoon.

four eggs is very normal for swallows, occasionally there will be 3 or 5 eggs, and once I observed 6 (I have watched thirty something nests now)

It would appear that they have added a lot more feathers during the egg laying period, but have not added any more mud or straw!


.

Thanks for the update.

Beautiful nest. :)

I wonder about the white feathers and what bird they came from?

Do they use the all white feathers each time they nest?

Lara, some birds pluck their own feathers for nest lining. But I don't know if swallows do that. There is typically also a post-nuptial moult of many types of birds. And perhaps this is a source of some feathers too.

They may find seagull or duck feathers too.
Here is an interesting photo of hand offering to a swallow of feathers for her nest!


.


And a video of hand picking feathers:

.


and this from feathers on the ground:

.


I am encouraged by this video. We often find many white feathers upNorth on the shore. I am going to gather these smaller ones dropped by the gulls and geese, bring them back and put them in
my cotton dispenser and see what happens next spring.
We used to have many swallows nesting under the tunnels along our creek...but I haven't seen them lately.;)

wow, very interesting.
Thanks for posting those.

I must say that swallows look really pretty in flight.

They are really FAST too. We used to have them all the time, and they lived under the bridges along with creek where the roads go over them...but then there was huge construction on a new sewer system and big machines scared them away.

You could stand in the street, and they would be zooming overhead eating bugs like mosquitoes etc. Our tree cover is very high (old oaks), so the street was like a tunnel for them. They remind me of the bats upNorth, which are also very fast when they swoop down to catch mosquitoes. Only the bats come closer to your head than the swallows do. ;)

This is a woods where we live...a little oasis of woods in a busy city. I wonder how the small feathers would do here. Not much in the way of sources available like on farmlands etc. ;)

Good question and I don't really know - Mrs D is correct that some birds pluck some of their own feathers however I don't think Swallows do this, I have seen them flying back to the nest carrying feathers which sort of suggests they are sourcing them rather than using their own. (presumably if they were using their own they would do so at the nest site ?)

Why white? I have looked at some old nests in the garage and some old photographs from previous years and indeed the feathers used are predominately white, my only guess for this may be white feathers are easier to find, whilst out with the dog this week I have taken notice of feathers I have spotted lying on the ground and they have virtually all been white, I guess the more camouflaged ones are just to difficult to see.

They are wonderful flyers, skilful enough to snatch insects out of the air. I love to watch them over parks and playing fields, they fly on e to two feet above the grass feeding on insects that have been disturbed by people walking over the grass.

You must have different species of bats to us, ours never come close - I also like watching bats, at this time of year we get a good few in the twilight.

So what has been happening on the nest this week ?, well not much really, she has just been sitting incubating her little eggs for most of the time, bit boring really.

But then today I decided to try and get a decent picture which was more exciting than you could possibly imagine - needed to get hidden in the loft space above the garage, and getting there with my knackered back and no ladders (due to the swallows nesting on them) was about as exciting as it get these days :D (I do appreciate I joined this forum to discuss my falling to bits spine, but chatting about birds i guess is far more therapeutic)

Anyway - here she is on the nest

.


And here is her mate waiting patiently outside on the lamppost -

.

I really appreciate your posting the photos.

... as long as you don't injure your spine more in doing so! ;)

Thanks

Perhaps the Green Heron?

Google that --I am iPhone impaired regarding
Copy/paste--but I saw a site saying the
Green heron often uses "bait" to lure fish.

Ooppsss.. Sorry wrong thread but I think
you will see this here anyway;)
I am on vacation and have no computer.

First two hatched after 12 days of sitting, that is fairly quick but the weather here is about as hot as it gets, and I guess warm weather helps the incubation process! - 3 days in a row the temp has hit 25° (feels like we are getting roasted alive). The following pic was taken this morning, I would imagine the other two eggs will have hatched now, they usually all hatch on the same day.

Its an amazing thought that this tiny little pink speck of life will fly about 8000 miles to South Africa (including crossing the Sahara desert) by Xmas.


.

Yes, it is a wonder. A miracle really.

I often wonder at the tiny hummingbirds
too. ;)

Incredible.

It is certainly difficult to believe they fly that far when you see them like that.

Bad Cormorant, you must be used to very cold weather.
It's mid-winter here and today will be 23C perhaps and maybe 25C in a few days time.
I'm sorry for your heat wave but I think that'll suit a lot of the visitors for the C'Wealth Games. :o

Well done with the photos. You're doing an amazing job.


:Wave-Hello: to mrsD

Got up to 27 today, far far too hot - we headed off to the coast where it was only 19, plenty of hot sunshine but a nice freshness in the air - took a dip in the North Sea, nothing quite like it for removing aches and pains, 10 minutes in the water and you can feel like new again (I think survival time at the moment is 15 minutes:))

As for the C'Wealth Games - Can't believe what's happening, we had thought some proper Scottish weather would have given us home advantage, but this strange hot weather is clearly suiting the Aussies - It's no natural all this blue sky and heat.

brrrrrrr

I always tend to think about these sporting events in population numbers for some reason.
[plus some places spend a LOT of money helping train their athletes]

Scotland is only just over 5 million people isn't it?
We're just over 23 million (I think).
Some of the other Commonwealth nations have much greater populations.

I think Scotland is doing really well, heatwave or not!

Looking at it by "people per medal point" and we have an undoubted leader of the pack with a country I have never heard of, and needed to find it on Google Earth "Nauru" (200x more sucessful than England - LOL)


.

How interesting.
Nauru is almost sitting right on the Equator.
Nauru is in our news a lot. Not necessarily for good reasons.
It's a phosphate island and was devastated by mining.

long story...

they are coming on very well, we still have very warm weather and lots of insects, parents seem to be feeding every few minutes, and the young are becoming very noisy shouting "me me me" when the food arrives. I wonder how the parents know which one to feed, they always seem to grow at the same rate so the distribution must be good.

2 days old

.



5 days old

.



7 days old

.

Really cute and interesting too.

Thanks for posting these wonderful photos.;)

Certainly interesting - I have wanted to follow the whole process from nest construction to fledglings for many years, I have been studying Swallows nesting in my garage for a long time now but work has always got in the way of following an individual family. So stuck at home crawling around on all fours with a knackered back has given me a great opportunity to devote so much time to watching them for many hours every day.

Anyway, here's today's picture, needed to get myself hidden in the loft and precariously hang out of the hatch with the camera so as not to disturb the goings on..

day 8

.

May I ask... What type of camera and
Lenses are you using?

Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

I think it is what is known as a "Bridge Camera" it fills the niche between the compact/mobile phone and the SLR. It is too big to fit in your pocket but its lens is long enough to get some good wildlife shots. It is also no where as expensive as an SLR so I don't feel the need to be too careful with it and as such I take it everywhere!

And although the lens is not interchangeable it is quite adaptable as shown in the following two pictures, a blackbird caught stealing raspberries a few days ago (taken from about 25 yards) and a beautiful Damsel fly taken today sitting on my thumb.

.



.

Anyway, back on topic with the swallows nest. Another frantic day of feeding, it seemed as they were getting fed once a minute for most of the day.

11 days old

.

Yes they need lots of protein to grow those
Feathers in!

I have an automatic Sony super zoom
Which is really handy for nature photos.
It also will do manual but I really like
The auto features better. With the 9 pixels
I can really do good things on the computer
With them.

Day 13 - the blur on the right is a parent coming in to feed


.

16 days old

.




and today at 17 days old

.


and just to show there is still 4, feed time

.


Should be fledging the nest sometime this week - anyone want a guess at what day?

Amazing photos still coming there, Cormorant. Thanks.

They plump up fast. wow.

If we're guessing a day to fledge, my guess will be day 21.