Second brood

I haven't posted any pictures of the swallows second brood because in the poor quality cctv cameras they look exactly the same as the first brood. Here are a collection over the last few weeks.






I think this one sitting on an empty nest the other side of the stables is one of the youngsters from the first brood.

Still near home

In the air

Now that the parents have less baby duties they have been swooping and gliding all round the stables and the trees. I managed to get a few shots of them in flight.

The photography bit.  Same camera and lens as previously described.  I manually focussed on the very top of our apple tree and tried to judge when the swallows flew at that distance.  I took lots of pictures, many of which were out of focus.  I was pleased with how many came out well.

Fledging

Well nearly. All the swallow babies left the nest today but they only went as far as one of the drinkers in the stables.

Just in time for the England World Cup match.

Our farrier told us a very nice story yesterday about a swallow fledging.  Like us a couple had been watching their swallows and were surprised when all but one of the swallows in their stables had fledged.  The fledgelings kept coming back to encourage the last to leave the nest.  When at last it looked like something was wrong the couple went up a ladder to have a look.  The last baby was trapped in the nest by some horse hair making up the nest.  A few gentle snips to the horse hair with some nail clippers and a very eager bird flew away.

Pigeon babies

Yes, plural. Where we thought there was just one egg and one chick... there are two.

Better Camera

I've been out with my stills camera to take some better pictures.  The chicks are large enough to see easily from the ground.  I have seen 5 good healthy looking babies in that nest.

Shelley has seen the Pigeon baby which is somewhere under mum in the following picture.

For those photographically minded, the camera is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi which is the same as the Canon 400D.  Using a Sigma 18-200mm zoom.  Auto exposure and auto focus using the built in flash.

Noisy