Swallows.

I've been monitoring breeding Swallows on a local farm for a few years now but due to Covid restrictions I hadn't been able to check on them for two years. With the lifting of restrictions I was invited back by the owners to continue checking nests and ringing young. 

This year has been a fairly mixed one. I found 4 active nests of which one was seen to be predated by a feral cat. So far I've ringed two very healthy broods and have another to ring.

John has been monitoring Swallows at a site on the Wirral for many years nd I've often been with him t oring both the young and try to catch a few adults in the loose boxes in which they breed. This involves putting a 3 m mist net inside the loose box and we've had birds returning to breed i nthe same places in subsequent years. Again, Covid restrictions had prevented any monitoring so we werent optimistic of catching any returning adults as these would have bee nat least 4-5 years old by now and the average Swallow doesnt survive that long! We managed to catch two adult males and I got to appreciate again hwo beautiful these long distance migrants are close up.