This evening we have been out checking the bird nests in our farm buildings!
We checked lots of swallow nests – most of them old from previous years – and found 2 with eggs and a few more which should have eggs soon!
Both adults build a nest from mud and plant fibres, against a beam or shelf in buildings or a ledge on cliffs. Existing nests are often refurbished, and there are instances were nests have been reused for nearly 50 years!
The duties of incubating the eggs are performed by the female, which the incubation period lasting between 10-21 days!
Last year we rang a brood of swallows from the nest in the video above! The nest has been used for the past three years and has housed many baby swallows!
We also found 3 House sparrow nests; there is a group of sparrows nesting in the cracks in the wall of my Nana’s house!
These chicks are likely to be the second brood. They will be fed in the nest by their parents for just over 2 weeks before venturing out into the big wild world!
I’m hoping to ring these baby sparrows this weekend!
Young Naturalist: Izzy Fry 
Absolutely lovely, thank you. But I think the past form of to ring when it applies to birds or anything else one’s putting a ring round, is ‘ringed’??? And ‘rang’ only applies to bells?? Or has an authority said it’s rang??
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