Re: Swallows - life under the bridge

Hi everyone,

Guess what? Now you can keep up with Saltholme's wildlife 24 hours a day.  The Saltholme webcam has just gone live.

The current stars are a family of swallows nesting underneath the swing-bridge (the bridge you walk over to get into the visitor centre).

If you've visited Saltholme over the past few weeks, you'll have seen the live images from the swallow nest underneath Saltholme's swing bridge.  Sad news I'm afraid.  The newly hatched chicks didn't make it through the mix of sweltering heat and heavy rain and that we suffered last week.

The great news is that the same pair have have started rebuilding a new nest in a different corner of the swing bridge.  In fact, they're almost finished.  The nest you can see on the webcam was constructed over the course of just two or three days.  Nice work guys.

So, a new chapter starts in the lives of Saltholme's swing-bridge swallows, and you can watch every single second of it from the comfort of your bed, armchair or swivel chair ... or wherever else takes your fancy.

We want to know what's going on and when, so please let us know what you see on this thread.

Enjoy watching!

Ben.

Keep an eye on the webcam guys ...

Both parents have been adding some finishing touches to the nest today...

Hi Ben how are they doing now?

Hi osprey,

Both parents have been doing a spot of interior decorating today - bringing in feathers to give the nest a nice soft lining.

They have been spending more time at the nest, with Mrs S looking a bit uncomfortable from time to time.  I reckon that egg-laying isn't far off!

Let us know what you see ...

Ben.

Looks like Mr S (other suggestions for a name welcome) is sitting on some eggs...

Dunno. But if swifts get their name because they're dead fast - where do swallows get their name? Downing flies?

Nice question Alyson, I love a good word puzzle!

I think that 'swallow' and 'to swallow' are unrelated.  My guess is that the name swallow sounded like the verb and, over time, the bird took on the sound (and spelling) of the verb.

That said, they do have a big wide mouth, perfecting for ... er ... swallowing.

All's been quiet over the past couple of weeks. The nest is finished and eggs have been laid.

Keep watching guys, the eggs should be hatching over the course of the next week.

Let us know what you see.

Ben.

Great news guys - the eggs have hatched!

We're not sure how many chicks are in the nest, but we can see them wiggling about.

www.rspb.org.uk/.../webcam.aspx

Keep us posted on what you see.

Ben.

Ben Calvert

I think that 'swallow' and 'to swallow' are unrelated.  My guess is that the name swallow sounded like the verb and, over time, the bird took on the sound (and spelling) of the verb.

Hi Ben and Alyson,

You're right that the two words are unrelated. The name of the bird is ancient and means "forked tail". It's a coincidence that the two words are now spelt and pronounced the same.

Really interesting shots of that nest by the way! We have a pair of swallows which nest under a pleasure boat pier on the river Thames - the only swallows I know around Kingston, among the swifts, house martins and amazingly, sand martins.

:-)

Jackdaw

Thanks Jackdaw. I di get round to checking the dictionary but didn't get back to the blog!

Sad news I'm afraid.  The chicks hatched, but didn't make it through the hot weather we experienced last week.  The adult swallows have given up on the swing bridge now.  They'll be setting their sights on getting back to Africa for the winter.

We think that they were inexperienced parents and didn't really get into the swing of raising a family.  The male swallow was quite tatty - he only had one tail streamer - so he wasn't in the best condition.

The nest was also prone to getting wet when it rained.  We did all we could to plug the bridge with clay, but we think that the nest was still very damp.

We've relocated the webcam onto a log pile at Saltholme - we've already seen wrens, foxes and even a weasel.  What will you see?

Ben.