Swallows

Chris said a guy he works with thought the birds in the nest out front are swallows, so I decided to look them up -- Definitely swallows. I believe they are Barn Swallows to be exact, judging by the shape of the tail and nest. I learned a serious advantage to having them here...they have been known to eat their weight in insects in a day (bye, bye flies, mosquitos, and wasps!). I was a little worried when I read that swallows are territorial in that they tend to come back to the same nest year after year, and more than that they typically live in colonies bringing back more birds with them to nest each year. (I saw some of those colonies under the overpasses along I-5 on my way down to San Diego last week -- No thank you!) The article I saw online said they can live in colonies of up to 3,700 -- but thankfully the barn swallow doesn't tend to live in colonies like that. There is still one con that worries me -- the plentiful bird droppings. It's nasty and can obviously lead to some pretty serious illnesses. I worry mostly because of Jonathan's innocence and curiosity. I can easily see how he could get into that mess and I'd be none the wiser.
Either way, it seems that the swallow and their nest are protected by law, so we will have these house guests until about mid-June, once the eggs have hatched and the fledglings have left the nest. Until then I'll just be cleaning up bird droppings -- fun stuff!

Oh and I found something cool ... "a swallow tattoo is popular amongst nautical men as a symbol of a safe return". Comforting to think it could be a sign just before Chris leaves for 6 months at sea!