yea, I'm hoping I can wait it out if it doesn't take too long. I didn't cut my lawn this weekend because their aggressive behavior. I'll see what happens next weekend. Hopefully things return to normal as I do normally like the birds.

thanks,
jasper

So happy you are able to enjoy the swallows. I'm lucky enough to have Tree Swallows as well as Barnies. They all really keep the mosquito population down when they are here. I can really tell when they leave as I get so many bites. As stated they usually only do this near fledging time. They will NOT hit you. At the speed they fly they would hurt themselves. They just want to scare you and apparently they are doing a good job of it. LOL You are not alone. Everyone I know runs and screams from them. I don't duck anymore and they have never hit me yet. When they follow the lawn mower they are just flying around to get the bugs you kick up. They actually like it when you cut the grass. You are lucky to have free no poison bug control. Have fun with them.
Cathy

yea, kinda embarrassing. I'm a big guy and afraid to death of those little devils. I'm not even near their nest, but when they see me they go crazy! I feel sorry for the other birds because I haven't been able to feed them in the last 4 days. Thanks.

jasper

We all have our phobias! LOL (Mine are wasps and hornets.)

Good luck with the swallow situation. Hopefully and probably it will soon be over!

Are you sure you're not just creating an alibi for when your wife gets back and the back yard isn't mowed? :0)

Thank you so much. That was exactly what I was hoping to hear. I love birds but these tree are making my beautiful backyard seem like Alfred Hitchcock's The birds..lol..as long as they are not going to peck my eyes out I can cope. And they can eat all the skeeters they want. ✌

We have them in our fields, but they are too busy chasing bugs to bother us. But.....when I was young, my father had an office in an older house. The barn swallows had built a nest on the front porch. Whenever we would go anywhere near there, they would dive-bomb us. It was pretty scary. So I'm thinking they are only like that if their nest is close by...??

Fortunately, I haven't had many problems with the swallows since starting this thread in 2009. I guess they lost interest in me. :)

I just discovered what little birdie built a nest above my porch window. It turns out is a Barn Swallow. Both mom and dad bird are on the tiny ledge and dad is very protective. Cute little critters but can be intimidating. :D

I took a walk in Bloomington, MN yesterday. I was cutting through a baseball diamond and walked next to the small field house, where I suddenly was dive-bombed by many swallows. Wow, it was definitely like "The Birds"! I typically like watching birds, but this was a bit much! The swallows fly SO fast and came within it seemed inches of my head, that I screamed and ran waving my arms. I surely looked like a crazy person :) ! Good to hear this behavior will probably stop after babies fledge from the field house nest. I wonder how many baseball players have been "surprised" this summer. I will eye the field house with suspicion forever on future walks. :)

Yeah...only for a short period which I think most of us can wait out until fledged. I don't think the dive bombing has ever touched or harmed anybody.

They won't hurt you...and it will only last a couple of weeks.

Thanks, guys! After reading your comments, I will try to be braver next time. I look forward to checking it out soon as the babies probably fledged or will fledge soon. :)

We have them in our warehouse at work. We are located in East Texas. This morning, while I was walking through the warehouse, headed to my office I noticed 2 babies on the warehouse floor. From previous experience I know to stay clear as the adult birds go crazy. I tried giving them their space, no luck, they were still dive bombing like crazy. This makes it very hard to run a business when they interfere with production. I am thinking of building them their own little area away from the warehouse but still on the property. Any suggestions, I don't want them harmed or even moved off the property, but still need to run our business.

I was lucky. They've since moved their nesting grounds without any intervention from me. LOL.

They will be aggressive until those babies are gone.

I would steer clear for now.

Good luck. :)

I have a barn swallow nest on my front porch with 4 nearly grown babies in it. The Adults have been very aggressive whenever I am in my front or side yards. They dive bomb me noisily and have actually struck the top of my head a couple of times. There are about 10 - 12 different adult birds flying around, Maybe the extended family. It is good to know that hopefully this will stop after the little ones fly. Will the adults have another brood this summer?

Usually not, but sometimes I've seen a second hatch. I always wondered if that was either due to ample food or something happened to the earlier brood. They do seem to have extended families though as you mentioned.

I really like them; they are so beautiful! I plan on leaving the nest in place over the winter so hopefully they may come back next year. In the meantime, I wear safety glasses in the yard and may start wearing my bicycle helmet just in case.

They usually prefer to build fresh nests each year (mite infestations and the like), but sometimes they do reuse.

I never had them do anything worse than a featherful fly by or perhaps slight pulling of hair. But your swallows could be more aggressive, after all, they're the evolutionary descendants of velociraptors :) (hee)

Well, the four babies fledged yesterday so I was able to water my flowers in relative peace in the afternoon. Then, surprise, surprise, the little ones were back in the nest at dawn today!

That is a surprise, I've never noticed them returning to the nest.

Same thing happened to me and I am afraid to go nto my barn if my husband is not with me. We have a nest on my porch and 30 birds were diving at my dogs. Poop is everywhere.

our four babies were out of the nest all day yesterday but returned around sundown and were still there this morning. I guess they have to roost somewhere.

We have a bluebird box that has been habitually inhabited by bluebirds for five years. Last year, a black bear went on a romp in our backyard and trashed the box, apparently looking for food. We put in a new one and were so happy to see it inhabited by bluebirds this year. But now, swallows have taken over the bluebird box. We don't know what they did to the poor bluebirds. These swallows are aggressive and dive bomb us. How and when is the best way to remove the nest from the box? Any ideas? Thanks!

I have barn swallow nest under my balcony, which of course just has to be where my back door is. They have already had a baby, which they were aggressive towards us when we would walk out the door, but only as we passed it. The baby has flown away. We thought we were in the clear. But it appears THEY HAVE ANOTHER EGG. I Went out to get into my pool today and BOTH of them were extremely aggressive. They were both coming at me at the same time, flying at my head and circling around to come back. Mind you, my pool is more than a few feet away. With the other egg, as long as we walked past, they would fly past as if to Warn us, but then leave us alone. This time seems to be different. They followed me. I have 3 kids that I cannot allow in my back yard because of this. I am at a loss . I can not keep 3 kids locked in my house for a few weeks. There is no baby yet that I can see.