"Negative, Maverick. The pattern is full" ... and so is the nest under the deck!

Earlier this summer we had barn swallows trying to build a nest on the white vent that is attached to the house under our deck. There were no eggs, so I got a broom. I knocked the nest down, broke it apart and eventually washed off the vent. No problem - for me. The birds didn't like me very much, though, and started dive-bombing me for a few days.

They didn't really try to rebuild - at least I didn't think so. They were around - swooping and flying by, but never really taking up residence. Or so we thought. We checked in the regular places ... regularly ... to make sure they weren't building somewhere else. We had blue jays under the deck stairs one year, so we kept checking to see where the barn swallows would build ... hoping it would be at someone else's place - not nearby :)

When the cat's away, the mice will play. And when the homeowners are gone ... the barn swallows will build a nest under the deck, on top of one of the load-bearing wood beams ... and lay eggs. When we got home from our trip to Oho, we noticed that the birds were dive-bombing with more regularity and seemed to be upset when we played on the patio or under the deck. It was no wonder - the nest was obvious when we looked up, and when we checked from above, there were at least four (4) eggs.

I might be a home-wrecker (or nest-wrecker, I guess you would say), I'm no bird-killer (or egg-smasher). So, we have some friends joining us for the summer. The eggs hatched while we were at the Dells, and now the baby birds are getting big. Last night we sat and watched ... hoping ... thinking maybe the baby birds would take flight and leave ... and that we could see it ....

Didn't happen :( Still birds in the nest. But we had fun watching under the deck with the kids. Hopefully our dive-bombing friends will leave soon and we can get our peace and quiet back under our deck. Until then, we get to watch the adult birds feed their babies ... and we get to duck from time to time when those same adult birds decide to do a "fly by" live Maverick in Top Gun. You can barely see the barn swallow "fly by" in this clip, but just listen to those baby birds cry for food ...