All Creatures Great and Small

Last spring and summer, we were often woken up at 4:30 am by the screeching of birds. Hans, an elderly Liederbacher, had told us how he had attached several round swallow birdhouses on the front of our house right below our bedroom window several years ago and he keeps a close watch on the bird families.

At the end of April, I remarked to David that I hadn't heard the swallows yet. David asked Hans if he had seen any signs of the swallows yet and Hans replied, "Oh, no! They always arrive on May 1st." I didn't realize birds kept such precise schedules.

So, guess what we heard and saw on May 1st? The swallows had returned. We soon saw them performing their aerial acrobatics as they hunted flying insects, their favorite snack. And we soon started keeping our windows shut at night so we could sleep until our alarm went off.

A few weeks ago, Hans rang our doorbell to let us know that there was a problem that needed fixing with the nests. A few of the houses were slick on the inside and he had found a few fallen baby birds on the ground. He scooped up the still alive babies and took them to the wild bird rescue authorities. "Oh, yes," I added, "I found about five baby birds last year." Hans threw me a horrified look and I hastened to add, "But they were already dead when I found them." That was the wrong thing to say. I thought poor Hans was going to cry.

Hans went on to inform us that at some point over the next few weeks, he would have scaffolding erected, replace the slippery houses with new ones and also replace a few unused houses with a different birdhouse for different birds he had spied flying around. We did find this all a bit strange, considering for the time being this is our house. We confirmed the plans with our landlord who it turns out has a special swallow conservation arrangement with Hans.

Everything was taken care of while we were away in the Austria and Southern Germany....

.....but the scaffolding was still up when we arrived home yesterday. We took full advantage of it -- climbing the scaffolding and scrubbing clean the plastic cover over our front door which had been green with algae since before we moved in. And just in time, too. Today, workers arrived to remove the scaffolding.

We'll have to find out what species of bird is in the new wooden birdhouse. The nests swallows built themselves are made of mud pellets by the male and female bird and look just like the nests Hans put up.

Big babies awaiting their next meal

A busy parent. These birds seem to spend all day hunting for insects and returning to feed the babies. My car, parked right below the nests, is proof of that.