Guest Guest Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 I love the birds and have several bird houses around my property. One house has a nest of bluebirds every year and the others all house tree swallows. I made a mistake and added a new bird house next to our fenced in garden. The tree swallows were quick to occupy it and I was enjoying their presence there as they were eating the bugs in my garden. For those of you that don't know the habits of swallows, they are territorial and very protective of their nests. They also have a call they use to call in other swallows near by to come to their aid if they need help with a predator. We had three nests of tree swallows on my property. When the eggs hatched, trouble began. We would go out to our garden and the tree swallows that had her nest close to the garden did not like our presence in the garden. The pair would swoop at our heads warning us to stay away. At first we would duck into the corn and they would leave us alone. But as the fledglings grew and got ready to leave the nest, the swallows started getting a bit more aggressive. We started learning to leave the garden, beat feet for the grove of pines and hide in there until the swallows forgot about us which usually took only a couple of minutes. But the swallows were getting smarter and more aggressive. They soon started flying over the pines and down into the opening swooping at us. (the pines were planted in a long rectangular shape of single row trees and open in the middle.) One day I came home from work to find my ex. clad in chest waders, a big Mexican straw hat, holding a metal trash can lid in one hand and the garden hose in the other with the spray nozzle on it. The swallows were in full force, madder than I had ever seen them. They was calling in all swallows for the battle. And there was at least 30 or more pairs! They was calling more in and attacking my ex. from all directions. He was trying to ward off their blows with the trash can lid and spraying them with the garden hose. It was the funniest thing I think I ever saw! I still laugh about it to this day. I wish I had a video camera. That might of won us $10,000 on America's Funniest Videos. Hill Quote Link to comment
Guest Guest Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 Hi Hill! I was wondering if you wanted to have this added to the competition? I'll add it until you get back to me and let me know. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
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