They are so adorable! Thanks for sharing the photo of your cute little guests. We had a similar nest on the north (shady) side of our house one year and another one on the front porch.. After they left the nests, though, we tore them down so a whole colony wouldn't magically appear. Down here, with there being fewer barns as more farms and ranches are converted to housing or commercial property, many of the barn swallows now build nests under bridges. They still patrol our property daily, including checking every single window screen every day (sometimes twice a day) looking for insects to eat.

Well these barn swallows have been re-furbishing this same nest on our porch year after year. There really is no other location on the porch or nearby that would be practical or safe for the swallows to nest. This southwestern corner is under the eaves above our steep staircase, high up and inaccessible to predators. I don't know for sure they are the *same* two swallows year after year, but there is only the one nest. Meanwhile Mrs Finch is sitting on the nest and occasionally perching on the edge to turn her eggs. I imagine Mr Finch takes over nest sitting duties, although I haven't witnessed the changing of the guards. I do see him sometimes land on the ledge and sometimes in the little crabapple tree nearby. It is totally strange to see the pair of barn swallows arriving at dusk to spend each night perched next to the nest. I wonder if one or both could be last year's barn swallow babies.

"One thing I noticed this summer is that our barn swallows embarked early on their migration." They did the same thing this year, maybe left 3 weeks earlier. And Left a mess. They seemed to make bigger nests, used allot more mud and dropped so much more below the nests. I do have to admit I love at how graceful they are in flight and it is so fun to watch them learn how to fly from the balcony. The parents are so encouraging to the young birds when they are training them how to fly. Here is a link that might be useful: Alpiste Canary Bird Seed

petra you are lucky to have them so long mine left in Aug! We have a nest on our porch that was here when we moved in last yr. So we had them 2 yrs so far. I have the sweetest pic with five of them with all their mouths open to be fed. I took 108 pics before I got that one! I sure hope they come back next yr. Our robins are still here too.