3 Dead Birds

Crook Mackem

Crook Mackem

Striker
Summer of 2022 some swallows decided to build a nest in the eaves of our house. They left in the autumn.

Summer of 2023 they were back to the same nest that had survived the winter and they set about reproducing again.

Never seen them for months so presumed they had buggered off but the nest blew down yesterday. Went round the side today to sweep it up and there was at least 3 dead uns in amongst the wreckage. They all looked well on as well so a bit weird that they would get to the point they were pretty much fully grown and then never leave the nest. All of them had feathers and to me at least looked fully grown.

(i am not a bird expert, i have called them swallows but they were whatever the black and white fast flying things are).

Any bird forensic experts on here know why they would die in there at that stage ? Hope the parents havent met a grizzly end and theyve been left abandoned to die :-(
 


Crook Mackem said:
Summer of 2022 some swallows decided to build a nest in the eaves of our house. They left in the autumn.

Summer of 2023 they were back to the same nest that had survived the winter and they set about reproducing again.

Never seen them for months so presumed they had buggered off but the nest blew down yesterday. Went round the side today to sweep it up and there was at least 3 dead uns in amongst the wreckage. They all looked well on as well so a bit weird that they would get to the point they were pretty much fully grown and then never leave the nest. All of them had feathers and to me at least looked fully grown.

(i am not a bird expert, i have called them swallows but they were whatever the black and white fast flying things are).

Any bird forensic experts on here know why they would die in there at that stage ? Hope the parents havent met a grizzly end and theyve been left abandoned to die :-(
Click to expand...

Could be a House Martin nest?
Parents or one may have been killed, they can hit telephone lines etc.Equally if food was short, wet summer can have an impact. Bird of Prey etc.
Hopefully another pair or even off-spring will return 🤞

Swallows have a very long forked tail and prefer nesting inside (barns, sheds etc).
House Martin, short tail prefer house eaves, particularly under a v shape away from the elements.
Nature is cruel.
 
Swindon On Tour said:
Could be a House Martin nest?
Parents or one may have been killed, they can hit telephone lines etc.Equally if food was short, wet summer can have an impact. Bird of Prey etc.
Hopefully another pair or even off-spring will return 🤞

Swallows have a very long forked tail and prefer nesting inside (barns, sheds etc).
House Martin, short tail prefer house eaves, particularly under a v shape away from the elements.
Nature is cruel.
Click to expand...

Definetely house martins mate. Nest is pretty much destroyed, and they`d put a canny extension on it this year :)

They def picked a bad spot as its in the eaves which is pretty much a wind tunnel at the side of the house when the winds coming in from the west, ie 95% of the time
 
The local sparrow hawk is a bastard around my way, yes they’re majestic birds it can fuck off from my bird feeders. I had 3 lovely greenfinches that were regular visitors, nabbed one of them the other week and haven’t seen the other two since. Don’t know if the parents of your feathered friends have met a similar fate.
 
We used to have swifts under the eaves, years back, regularly each summer. So did a lot of houses in this area. Then one year they didn't turn up but I didn't think much more about it. Later I was sorting out the attic and was shifting an old zinc water tank, and when I looked inside there was a mother swift with her wings spread over three almost grown chicks. Dead obviously. I think one or more of the chicks had tried to fly inside the house rather than outside and their distress calls had brought the mother and siblings. There is no way a swift can take off from inside a tank. It was a truly pathetic sight. I buried them in the woods.
It was a sad end, and we haven't had swifts back since.
It was just nature's way @Crook Mackem . I think @Swindon On Tour was probably right about a lost parent or a weather event. The chicks are very vulnerable when they are about to fledge.
 
Swindon On Tour said:
Equally if food was short, wet summer can have an impact.
Click to expand...
This was my thought. Swifts just abandon nests and migrate if there is insufficient food due to weather. They did it in a wet summer a few years ago. I don't know if swallows.and martins do the same, but given the wet summer and how few I've seen of them this year it doesn't seem a stretch.
 
Helmerroids said:
The local sparrow hawk is a bastard around my way, yes they’re majestic birds it can fuck off from my bird feeders. I had 3 lovely greenfinches that were regular visitors, nabbed one of them the other week and haven’t seen the other two since. Don’t know if the parents of your feathered friends have met a similar fate.
Click to expand...

Looks like I took this on a potato but snapped this fella on the 2nd October sat on the back fence. Was eating me tea in the kitchen and the bairn asked is that an Owl on the fence ffs, he`s 12

https://imgur.com/a/v1IA8R2
 
Crook Mackem said:
Definetely house martins mate. Nest is pretty much destroyed, and they`d put a canny extension on it this year :)

They def picked a bad spot as its in the eaves which is pretty much a wind tunnel at the side of the house when the winds coming in from the west, ie 95% of the time
Click to expand...

They may have abandoned the nest Mate ?
Crook Mackem said:
Looks like I took this on a potato but snapped this fella on the 2nd October sat on the back fence. Was eating me tea in the kitchen and the bairn asked is that an Owl on the fence ffs, he`s 12

https://imgur.com/a/v1IA8R2
Click to expand...

Back fence as bold as brass.
Mrs (no) into photography got this with her Camera a few weeks back.


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Last edited:
Swindon On Tour said:
They may have abandoned the nest Mate ?


Back fence as bold as brass.
Mrs (no) into photography got this with her Camera a few weeks back.


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Click to expand...

Looking at your pic, just remembered a time back at our old house. We just had a back yard back then and I was out there doing something. At the back of the yard was a grassed lane and quite a few trees where the starlings would sqawk on for hours. I just happened to realise that it was deathly silent and as I looked up a sparrowhawk bombed into one of the trees. It was like a scene off "the birds" , there was starlings coming from all directions, I was hunched over covering my face :lol: a couple of them bounced off the back window and landed a meter or two away from my feet. I stood up and the hawk was sat on my back wall just staring at me. I distinctly remember shrugging my shoulders and saying "what did you do that for ?", he just looked at me , he`d caught nowt and then flew away . It was traumatizing ! I left the dead ones there in the yard and he never came back for them so they ended up in the bin.
 
Crook Mackem said:
Looking at your pic, just remembered a time back at our old house. We just had a back yard back then and I was out there doing something. At the back of the yard was a grassed lane and quite a few trees where the starlings would sqawk on for hours. I just happened to realise that it was deathly silent and as I looked up a sparrowhawk bombed into one of the trees. It was like a scene off "the birds" , there was starlings coming from all directions, I was hunched over covering my face :lol: a couple of them bounced off the back window and landed a meter or two away from my feet. I stood up and the hawk was sat on my back wall just staring at me. I distinctly remember shrugging my shoulders and saying "what did you do that for ?", he just looked at me , he`d caught nowt and then flew away . It was traumatizing ! I left the dead ones there in the yard and he never came back for them so they ended up in the bin.
Click to expand...

This was incredible and taken on my phone on a walk.
Had taken a Magpie and was dragging it rather than fly away as I stood 5 feet from it.
Always alert as you can read the Countryside. Easy to walk past this but knew something was just the other side of the bush.

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