Goodbye Summer Visitors - See You Again Next Year

The last of our little Summer visitors, the Swallow family, left this week. 

Some of the older ones had already left last month, leaving just a few of the younger siblings behind to pick up strength before the long journey South.

It is said that British swallows migrate to spend their winter in South Africa before returning back to the UK in April and May to raise their chicks and "enjoy" the British Summer.

They very often return to the same nest and we wondered what would happen when we moved here in the Spring as we had spotted 2 nests in our car port.  

Around about May, we realised the swallows had not only arrived but also nested, when we noticed them flying in and out regularly and there was the chatter of 4 little chicks ("feed me, feed me, feed me").

Before long, they got too big for the nest and sat out on a beam, waiting for more food to arrive.  

Shortly after that, they would take short flying trips with their parents, but return home late afternoon, tired out and ready to roost on the tv aerial, also in the carport.

teenager swallows

Then they really started to enjoy the summer, skimming over the fields to catch insects, playing flying games with each other and socialising with other swallows from the neighbourhood on telegraph wires.

But what about the second nest, which had remained empty?  Well it seemed that Mr and Mrs Swallow had been reserving this for their second brood and in August, we heard the familiar chattering and this time there were 5 little chicks.

and they grew very quickly - probably due to the abundance of food available for them in peak summer

Before long, there wasn't enough room for all of them in the nest, so the largest one moved outside to a beam, and was soon joined by another

Pretty soon, they were all out of the nest and we were amused by the particularly large, chubby one ...

Most of the swallows left last month and those remaining seemed to be waiting for the perfect moment when they were up to full strength and the weather conditions were most favourable - that day happened just a few days ago.

I just think its amazing that these little birds can make such an epic journey (apparently they travel through western France, across the Pyrenees, down eastern Spain, into Morocco and across the Sahara).

We've loved having them around for the summer and are missing them already!

Good luck little swallows on your epic journey and hopefully see you again next spring.