The Swallows of Waterstone Estates

A family of Swallows

There are swallows that streak and dart through the sky like skilled ace pilots maneuvering to strike their target. Which, in this case, are bugs. They swoop down at Puppie occasionally, on our walks around the neighborhood, and I don’t know why. She surely can’t be a threat to them and we are not near any nest when this occurs. A couple have made a nest this year on a mounted speaker on my back porch. I noticed them about a week ago landing on the speaker and placing something there. When I looked a couple days later, they had constructed a full-blown nest out of mud and twigs. Now, the female sits in the nest while the male sits out on a blade of the ceiling fan on the porch. The female with dart out and the male follows right behind. They come back a few minutes later of sometimes ten or more minutes later. The longer they are gone, the more they chat when they get back. I don’t think she has laid eggs yet. One time, they flew out and when they flew back, a guest had accompanied them. The mail quickly chased the unwanted visiter off and returned to his post. These two don’t seem to mind or pay attention to Puppie when Puppie pops through her dog door onto the porch. I thought they might at first but have noticed that they don’t mind. Maybe Puppie is an assurance that no more dangerous creatures will be visiting the porch. At least from the ground.

Today, May 28, the dad went out to eat I suppose. The mom flew out and back real quick. Then did that again, as if she was looking for dad. The third time she went out a little further and came back with him in tow. Guess she wanted him there while she settled down in the nest for a while. He sometimes flies out by himself but, when she flies out, he always follows.

I couple times, I noticed that the male bird, I’ll call him Dean, had flown into the porch area where the nest was and actually flew up to the nest where the female bird, I call her Jan, was sitting, watching her eggs I guess, and she fluttered out at him as if to say “What were you thinking. I am already here and watching the eggs. Other times, Dean would fly in and fly off and she would follow. Maybe he indicated to Jan that there was a great place over the lake to

catch lots of bugs. There birds feed on the fly, meaning in the air, not on the ground like Mocking Birds.

On June 16th, I noticed a flurry of activity and I suspected that something had happened. Namely, that the little eggs had been hatched and little swallows were now needing food. They were taming terns feeding the little ones and flying out to the lake to catch more bugs. Dean would fly up to the next and Jan would immediately fly out while Dean deposited his tiny load with a chick or two. And then, Jan would fly up and Dean would take off in similar fashion. This activity continued for several hours in the evening before dusk. That is the time that all the Swallows are very actively flying over the lake, swooping down and darting across to catch the many bugs that take to flight at that time of the evening.

It is already Sunday, just a few days after this feeding activity started and, I already see a couple heads bobbing up and down as one or the other of Jan and Dean come under the porch and land on the edge of the nest. On Saturday, I could only detect one head popping up from the back of the nest. Now, there appears to be at least two heads at a time and there might be a third or even forth. Had to get a good angle with a camera to document it but, I don’t really want to disturb them.

There are plenty of Mocking Birds around here and everywhere in Texas it seems. I see them swooping down to catch a bug on the ground. That’s where all there hunting is focused. They sometimes hop along the ground and spread there wings in a burst of movements that all end up in one flap, scaring and intimidating the bugs and making them move or try to fly away. At which point the Mocker grabs them. At least, that is the plan. I see and hear them often chasing and squawking at one another as if one had entered the territory of the other or had approached their nesting area. They often perch on the fence looking for activity on the ground.

The little ones are growing up

There are swallows that streak and dart through the sky like skilled ace pilots maneuvering to strike their target. Which, in this case, are bugs. They swoop down at Puppie occasionally, on our walks around the neighborhood, and I don’t know why. She surely can’t be a treat to them and we are not near any nest when this occurs. A couple have made a nest this year on a mounted speaker on my back porch. I noticed them about a week ago landing on the speaker and placing something there. When I looked a couple days later, they had constructed a full-blown nest out of mud and twigs. Now, the female sits in the nest while the male sits out on a blade of the ceiling fan on the porch. The female with dart out and the male follows right behind. They come back a few minutes later of sometimes ten or more minutes later. The longer they are gone, the more they chat when they get back. I don’t think she has laid eggs yet. One time, they flew out and when they flew back, a guest had accompanied them. The mail quickly chased the unwanted visiter off and returned to his post. These two don’t seem to mind or pay attention to Puppie when Puppie pops through her dog door onto the porch. I thought they might at first but have noticed that they don’t mind. Maybe Puppie is an assurance that no more dangerous creatures will be visiting the porch. At least from the ground.

lake to catch lots of bugs. There birds feed on the fly, meaning in the air, not on the ground like Mocking Birds.

They're learning to fly

Today, Saturday, July 7th, the little ones seventh day of flying. For three of them that is. They were all out of the nest and nowhere to be seen by the time I got up this morning. After about 15 minutes or so, they all came back for just a brief respite at their home and then were out again. They spent most of the day out flying around I guess. I don’t know if they go sit somewhere but, I suspect not. Two of them came back to the nest a couple times today and got fed by mother. The later evening feeding seemed to be both mom and dad as they were coming back every 30 seconds to a minute apart. Toward sunset, I went out to take some pictures of the clouds turning colors over the South lake. There were two birds in the nest at that time and they quickly took to flight. I think mom alerts them that they are not to sit in the nest when a human is outside or on the porch. Puppie, that’s my little Chihuahua-terriers name, is not a threat to them and they don’t fly when she goes out the dog door. At once there were five swallows flying over my head. Darting this way and that. Soaring effortlessly through the air as if they had been flying for months but, they had just been flying for seven days. Then I counted six and I knew that both mother and father had joined the kids and were putting on a real display of maneuverability over the back yard. It was a joy to watch and I tried to get some pictures with my Canon. We’ll see if they come out. As I went on to the porch to go back inside, they started flying toward the entrance to the patio and making a racket. I don’t know if they were thanking me for being such a good host to their family and nesting arrangement or if they were just trying to hurry me off the porch so they could settle down for the night. They are still sleeping in the nest at night. I sat inside for a while watching them as they flew in and out of the patio area going around the ceiling fans and then back out over the yard.

They would land and then go again as soon as another flew in and out of the patio. They eventually, after a few minutes, all came to rest in the nest or on one of the ceiling fan blades.

Today, Sunday, July 8th, I was busy all morning, actually, didn’t get up until 9:35 and, buy the time my brother left, we had been playing guitars, the birds were already out flying. That is, all the birds except the young guy. He was sitting on the nest. In a few minutes, the others had come back to the porch and they flew in and out for a few minutes.

Today, Saturday, July 14th, the whole swallow family spent most of the day away from the nest and back porch even. They were not to be seen when I woke up. About an hour later, at around 9 am, several of the kids I suspect came flying into and out of the porch. Just checking in or practicing for when they will find a spot and build a nest under a structure like a porch. It’s twilight now and the four kids are back at the nest or on the opposite speaker of on a fan blade. Earlier, I was all of them fly by as I was in the side yard. First two, the two more and finally the last two all came flying by as if they had all been flying together on some excursion. One, I am assuming it was the mother, swooped down as if to snatch a flying bug and to show the kids how it is done. It seems like this past week has been dedicated to teaching the new flyers how to forage for themselves. Last weekend, a couple of the kids, probably the two smallest and last to leave the nest, were still sitting in the nest a certain times during the day getting fed by mom or both mom and dad. I was a little surprised because they had been flying quite handily already for a whole week. Learning to hunt is a hard task to teach and learn.

The stories end!

Monday, July 16, the babies are no longer babies. And, they are becoming less dependent on their parents, I suspect. They leave the nest early in the morning and don’t come home, it seems, until dusk when the children come back to the nest. One has taken up a nearby residence on the accompanying speaker on the other side of the patio. Guess the coziness of the nest was just a little too cozy for him. Four grown Swallows can make that nest quite cramped I would think. On my walk with Puppie tonight, I saw four swallows soaring and darting and diving over the roof a couple houses down. Guess it’s a good bug environment there. The young ones have, evidently, become good hunters as their mom and dad had hoped and worked so hard to teach them. But, it must be nice not having to feed them all day long.

Tuesday, July 17th. No one was home at the nest when I returned from work tonight. There is still a couple hours of light left when I get home these days. I took Puppie out for her nightly walk and soon looked over the houses and saw 4 swallows flying about, darting here and there but, staying relatively close together. Since they were over my house and the house next door mostly, I understood that they were my little family minus the parents. I turned in and headed toward the lake because a big and not so friendly dog was coming on a leash held by their own. We walked along one of the public access channels that drain the lake in heavy flooding like Harvey. Our yard did not flood. The system for drainage was designed well. And, I had hoped to see our birds flying over the lake and back yard. And, sure enough, they were. All four of the kids. Don’t know where the parents were but, I found out in a few minutes that they were near by. They must be very proud of their handiwork in raising four wonderful little Swallows.

They were probably sitting in a tree just happy that the kids are now feeding on their own. It looks like that is what they were doing. Puppie and I went into the back yard and as we entered the porch, the kids all started swooping down and tweeting. No, not that kind of tweeting. More like the sound a bird makes. They were evidently calling mom and dat and saying that that guy is on the porch again and we want to go there to get ready to spend the night and sleep. Because, very soon there weren’t just four swallows but six. And they were all flying back and forth in front of the porch tweeting. I let Puppie in and went around to the side of the house where I had left a door unlocked and went in. When, I looked out on to the porch, they were flying in, swooping around the fans and the flying back out, making a lot of noise. I think they are all settled down for the night now.

I was walking Puppie and saw a neighbor and told him I was out watching the Swallows soar around the houses here. He said he didn’t like Swallows because they were so messy and aggressive. They would build nests on their porch in his childhood. Well, I don’t know if I would disagree with his statements but, the whole time they were nesting on my porch, they never once swooped down on Puppie when she went outside. They accepted her as part of the package, part of the deal for making a nest on our porch. Maybe they saw her as keeping other predators at bay.

About a week later, they quit coming to the porch and the nest at all. They have moved on to their new lives in the trees around the lake I suppose. So sad not see them anymore. I wonder if next year the mother and father will make a nest here on my porch again. Puppie won’t be there to see it because she died a few weeks ago. Now, I don’t have the Swallows or Puppie. So lonely here.