Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Swallows return again

I don't think I mentioned that over two years ago we began building the house on the farm. We began the foundations on December 5, 2010. We had the well dug. And the septic system laid out. And tried to build as much of the house by driving through the pastures but the rainy spring caught us and I had to build a road to get the last of the concrete trucks to the hill. We built the house into the side of a hillside because we live in tornado alley and a safe room is very desirable.We are still working on the last touches as we live in the house. Hopefully we will finish soon. But that isn't really the story.

The story is about the swallow that built her nest on the side of the safe room concrete wall. The room was dark and cool. She had a couple of 2" holes through the wall to come and go as well as the doorway. She had four eggs. The nest was an amazing work of structure. It was made from slender sticks and spit/glue. It was flat on one side and stuck to the wall! She came and went all through the spring. If we came close to the safe room she would fly out and create a sound like a ghost. You know, like a spooky ghost sound. It would start low and soft and build to a very high and loud ooowwwOOOWWW! I think it was a combination of her wings and a squeal. She was so quick and would fly every direction, from the small holes or through the door. We never knew where she would come from.We waited until she had raised her young and they had flown away before we closed in the last door in the rest of the house.

The summer of 2012 they were back. Since they couldn't get into the safe room, they built under the eaves and under porches. I think all four came back. We had company under our front porch all last summer. And they have returned this year! And to our amazement one has returned to the very same nest under the front porch.  This year we can sit by the window and watch her without causing too much disturbance. The mess on the front porch is worth the show!

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