Saw my first Swallow earlier tonight at the Garswood Landfill site.

Carl Fletcher-Poole wrote:

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I have seen a lot of Willow Warblers and Wood

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...and Wood Warblers?

Saw my first two at Marbury CP on 21st March & being seen daily now. Quite a few dropped in to the huge Sand Martin gathering yesterday morning and brought a couple of House Martins with them. Marbury CP is always a magnet for hiirundines

Another year and no Swallows seen anywhere yet.

I was up in the Lakes at the Weekend. Not a sign up there either.

I always consider Spring has arrived by the sight of my first Swallow.

-- Edited by Neil Ferguson on Monday 13th of April 2015 09:34:53 PM

Neil Ferguson wrote:

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Street Swallows have gone again already this year.

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They must be on penny, as there's bloomin hundreds there today .I think its been the best year for a long time for successful swallow breeding :) plenty young uns about :)

Lots better this year.

Came home from work on Wednesday and watched 4 Swallow fledglings sat on the apex of the roof opposite being fed by Mum & Dad !!!!

Better news. A pair was at Hyde's Farm, Woodley this afternoon another site with permanent residence, this time for over twenty years. Another (or the same?) pair were zooming around the back of Sunfield estate, Romiley, about 45 mins later, so at least some are back although I'm inclined to think things are not quite right out there. Yet.

-- Edited by Andy Bissitt on Saturday 26th of April 2014 08:52:48 PM

One of my street Swallows has arrived today as well.

Still no signs in Highfield.

a good dash of swallows on my route home from Southport to Horwich with singles and doubles starting with a fly past as I left work and finishing with two flying over the house as I got home. All told 20 birds seen in a 23 mile journey home

Swallows at Martin Mere this midday, over the reed bed; albeit my first this year.

I had one yesterday late afternoon in Golborn/Abram near that sofa distribution centre happily sitting on the telegraph wires

Hello

Has anyone seen any Swallows so far this year?

None at all so far in my part of Wigan.

The main thing that was confirmed by the Swallow Feeding Survey that was carried out a few years ago was that Swallows love dung or, to be more accurate, the flies that are attracted to it. The more dung the better, so cow and horse fields score highly.

As David points out, horses tend to have stables which provide the added bonus of nest sites.

Mike Passant wrote:

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Hi Neil and Bill,

I'm way out of area of course here in Co. Durham, but I have been asking myself the very same question as Neil.
The farm next to us has been occupied since the 1700's and for the first time in living memory this is the first year in which swallows have failed to nest in the outbuildings. A single bird turned up in late April and was joined by..... nothing.
The farmer told me last week that the solitary bird hung around for some weeks and then just cleared off. Normally at this time of year we have good numbers of swallows on our roof, garden walls and massing on the telephone wires in the bottom field.
I was heartened a little one evening earlier this last week when a half dozen or so house martins were hawking around overhead, but generally the garden areas are ominously quiet this year with no spotted flycatchers seen at all this July when normally we see family parties in the trees at the bottom of the garden. Butterflies also have been really scarce.
I hope it's just a temporary blip this year?

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Hi Mike,

It's obviously saddening to hear of the situation regarding your local Swallows. This to my mind is of greater concern than Neil's situation, given the length of time that this species has bred at this particular farm and this being a species which shows a known affinity to return to the area of its birth and previously used breeding sites. Obviously you will know the site very well but as I'm sure you are more than aware there are lots of things that can alter year on year. Locally the loss of hedgerows for feeding over, changes to livestock farming practices, loss of suitable nesting sites and the use of pesticides can all be a factor. Also for a species which travels such vast distances on migration, with two journeys over the Sahara and the risk of mortality on their wintering grounds when the rains fail, then I sometimes marvel that any manage to survive at all! On the traffic light system used for birds of conservation concern, this species is listed as being of amber concern - being categorised as a species of European conservation concern. Obviously it is then a species that we still need to keep an eye on. If I can quote from the GM 2007 County Bird report it stated in that year that for Swallow "there were only 14 records submitted for confirmed, probable or possible breeding". Obviously this figure should have improved during the years of our local breeding bird's atlas (2008 - 2011) sadly to probably drop back again in subsequent years but it just goes to show how remarkably and worryingly little direct breeding information is normally received on such a common summer visitor, making it difficult to monitor its progress or otherwise, without using figures from organised national surveys such as the BTO's Breeding Birds Survey. I'm sorry to be such a nerd and a bore by once again regurgitating figures from this survey! Still here goes! This shows that nationally for the years 1995 to 2011 then this species has shown a statistically significant increase of 36% (following an earlier period of decline) and that your local area of North-East England (admittedly from a comparatively smaller number of survey plots when compared to other areas of England) has done slightly better with a 42% increase. So whilst it is very sad to hear of the loss of your local birds this year then the overall picture maybe looks a little brighter? Let's hope, as you say, that this is just a temporary local blip for a species which we all care for and worry about but for which we would all expect year-on-year population fluctuations.

Finally, whilst flicking through the BTO's Migration Atlas (2002) I read and learnt (without judgement) of another added pressure for this species that I personally wasn't aware of, being apparently subjected to "persecution for food" at some of its huge West Africa roosts, with "efforts being made to reduce the annual take of 100,000 Swallows". Further research found this following link (also from a good while back in 2006) on the subject - http://www.talking-naturally.co.uk/pierfrancesco-micheloni-barn-swallows-ebbaken-boje/

I'm sure Ian doesn't want this particular thread going off at a tangent on this last paragraphs topic but in my opinion it just goes to show that not all challenging wildlife scenarios such as this one are that easy to pass simple judgement on or to resolve.

Regards,

Bill.

Just call me a big fat liar but ......................................

I was out with Archie (worlds cutest dog) this morning. I got to the path as you come out of the woods near Brook Lane where I last saw the flock of Swallows at the end of July and heard familiar twittering.

On the wires above me were not 1 but 17 Swallows.

Delighted to see them again !!!

See my 'Tipping point reached' thread where all of this has gone before. Good news in the Times today, though, where a fine article on one-child families quotes the drop in population expected in a wide number of countries by 2050 (given current trends). Therein lies the only hope for wildlife. The U.K. of course, might already have been wiped clean of much of its wildlife by then.

Thanks Bill.

Food for thought there but I've never ever seen the skies so devoid of Hirunidae at this time of year.

I can't ever remember them departing this early though.

They are normally around where I live until well into September??

MJKeating wrote:

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I live just near Highfield, Wigan and must say that there isn't much in the skies at present (although I did hear an owl at the back of the house the other night!). However, near the DW stadium (up until about a week ago) there were hundreds of either Swallow or Swift flying around each night and then all descending onto the grassy area. Think they have all migrated now as I was there yesterday evening and there was nothing but gulls and a grey heron.

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There were several Blue Turkeys as well.

I was also there last night.

Louis Hill wrote:

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Swallows have declined in recent years...

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Have they? I quote the following from the BTO's Bird Trends webpage:

There has been little long-term change across Europe since 1980, but a moderate decrease since 1990. Modern methods of estimating population change from CBC give evidence of fluctuations but not for long-term decline in the UK. BBS data suggest increases throughout the UK since 1994. The BBS map of change in relative density between 1994-96 and 2007-09 indicates that decrease has occurred in that period in Northern Ireland and in eastern coastal regions of Britain, and increase most strongly in western Britain. Analysis has shown that the population fluctuations are most strongly related to variable losses on their wintering grounds.

Swallows have declined in recent years...