Swallows gone!

Ah bless her :) little children can be so innocent :)

Are they gone already ? I saw some yesterday, but haven't noticed today - we've been out.
I wish they'd stay all year round lol

Thanks for writing this in thick print. I could read it without any difficulty :o)

I was just thinking about them today too Angie....so they've gone...sad. I'll be so happy to see them next spring! I went blackberry picking again today...autumn has it's compensations. :)

As for me it's the hummers. A week or two before they leave they become very belligerent to one another chasing away each other from my feeders. I noticed this behavior last week and now they're gone. It will be about eight months till I see them again. Not long since I find that the older I get the faster time seems to go.

Its odd this year about the swallows, they arrived as usual and had two broods but went very early, in august just before the weather turne. , oddbecause I'm in the midlands
went to Galloway last week and the swallows were there still

I did a bit of research and they spend weeks if not months getting to Africa, slowly making their way and stopping a while where conditions are right, when they head back here to nest its a dash, as fast as they can.....they tagged birds to find out all this, fascinating!

Ours took off about the last week in August.

Ours brought out a new brood yesterday. We only live a few miles north of Scottish. I took some photos. This was probably the third brood and the older siblings help to feed the young. The most mature birds head off first then the last of them follow on later. When my OH was in the Merchant Navy he said it was not unusual to see thousands of swallows catching a ride on a ship. When we have inclement weather and few insects flying around parent birds will go all the way to Holland to seek out food for the young. They are amazing.

Wow! Hitching a ride on a ship?! That's incredible, I've never heard that before! how wonderful if you were lucky enough to see that! They are fascinating!

They are and so cute as babies.

Hywel - yes, bless her. She's a very quite wee thing and takes in everything you tell her, unlike her brother and sister! Please you can read - sorry it's your least favourite topic.
Karen - with each season, we have something new to think about and look forward too. Picking berries is good!
Loosestrife - I think I'd be very sad to see the hummers go, lucky you for having them visit in the first place :) I had a conversation only the other day about time flying by as we get older, you are not alone in thinking that.
Pam, yes, it is odd - as you will see from Scotsgran's comment they are still with her and she's a stone's throw from me. They are certainly hard working birds aren't they?
Steve, isn't it odd how they just all go together, no stragglers left behind.
Stroller, that's quite a few weeks of a difference. You'd think the further south the later they would leave.
Scotsgran, thanks for the extra information, it's all fascinating. Really odd that they are still with you. I must watch out at work tonight to see if they are gone there too.

The life of birds is so fascinating . . . thanks Angie for all that. (I remember reading in John Mortimer's "Summer of a Dormouse . . a year of growing old disgracefully" he said that when you are young an afternoon can seem like a year, and when you are old a year can fly past in the space of an afternoon!)

Strange how time alters and speeds up as we get older. I think our swallows have flown away. There were so few and arrived so late here in Essex, I thought that was it, until I heard the WEEEE noise and saw them swooping over the garden. They used to play about high up in large gatherings, before going to roost.

There is a reason for this perception of time and the key to it is metabolic rate. When you are young your metabolic rate is high so you perceive each time increment as longer. That's why toddlers seem impatient. A half hour to them seems like an hour. Remember when you were an adolescent and the summer break seemed so long? The same reason. As you get older the metabolism continually slows down so that perceived time increment gets shorter and shorter, now summers and life in general fly by and we start to look for the emergency break to slow time down. When someone says to me that I look like I had a long day, I reply, " Good! At my age the longer the better!" Here is a final example, the fly that you try to swat. It has a very high rate of metabolism and in its world most things it perceives go in slow motion, that fly swatter for instance.

Now that makes so much sense!
Thanks Loosetrife.....

what a brilliant mind:-)
now i know about it also , Angie:-)

Our swallows apart from four all seem to have gone. I went out yesterday and only those four were wheeling around. This am at 7 o'clock the four are still here.

See snoops blog Scotsgran, more here..... Perhaps they are yours :)
Salamat Junna :)

Ours were much later this time....

I did see Snoops blog Scottish. I miss those gatherings, they do not happen here anymore.