Our barn swallows have been returning during the second or third week of March for years. They left for South American quite early last year because of the drought, and I'm really hoping they did not perish. We tried to sit out on the back porch tonight, but the mosquitoes are already bad. Need my swallows! They are such pretty little birds. I know some don't like their mud nests or the poop on the porch, but I have a little power washer to clean the porches and I think the nests are works of art.

Hi Patricia My barn swallows showed up this past week. I love having them around like you. They really are a treat to watch each year. I bet yours will show up in the next few days

Thanks, Stephanie. I just began to get concerned about the swallows today as a few are always here by now ahead of the crowd. We have covered porches on three sides of our house, and we normally have a couple of nests on each side. Multiply that by three hatches of four to five little birds each time, and that is a lot of little birds programmed to come back home. Can you tell in this sequence which little bird is the hungriest? (They reacted to the flash on my camera as though it were their parent flying by with food.)

They are all adorable, I love the swallows!!

Aw, they're so cute! I love those also...and I like the cave swallows as well. I haven't seen any swallows yet, but might go to Lakehills tomorrow to check. That's where I go to see them the swallows, since they don't come to my house. Last time I checked Lakehills, they hadn't arrived.

How cute! Great pictures!

Well, they've reached Lakehills, though not very many yet. This one must have grabbed one of the nests left from previous years.

And this one is trying to build a nest. Not easy when you're talking about a busy convenience store and restaurant located there.

And this one I'm not sure about, because Cave Swallows have used this carwash in the past. But the bird does look kind of like the other ones, so maybe it's a Barn Swallow.

I love to watch the babies, they make me smile Then they make me laugh as they get older and begin to fledge

Our neighbor has a nestbox they usually frequent, but we haven't seen them which is very sad as we really really need them. The bugs/mosquitos are BAD now with the rains and the standing wateer in the greenbelt. The poor dragonflies and damselflies just can't keep up!

any swallows yet Pat?

I am still hoping our swallows will come back. I am fairly sure I saw two flying over the valley across from us two evenings ago, but they aren't roosting anywhere around our porches at night. The mosquitoes are already bad. We need our swallows!