YAY!!! They’re back as of this morning!!! One pair is anyway!
Four pair of Purple Martins have been back for about ten days.
Ahhhhhhhh----------
None here in Eastern Ontario yet. It has been really cold…snow yesterday… but supposedly warming up later this week.
Saw my very first barn swallow in the barn this morning! I admit, it does my heart good to have them return.
We had a lot of sparrows ruin quite a few nests this past winter, and lost some when we updated some of our lighting fixtures. We have constructed some ledges for the swallows to rebuild on, and hopefully make up for the lost ones!
First sighting!! I think this is the earliest I’ve ever seen them! Hopefully the cold weather is really over…
First sighting! This is the earliest I’ve ever seen them. (NW CT)
Hopefully we’re done with the cold weather!
I saw a pair this weekend in our barn - southwest Ohio!
I haven’t had any barn swallows for about 3 years now. I used to have at least 9 nests in my run-in shed. It’s very sad.
I also used to have lots of night hawks and blue birds, who did a great job on the local bug population.
It’s such a shame to lose these natural pest controllers. I live in hope that one day they will return. My husband put up lots of blue bird houses and we did have a pair nesting last year, so maybe there is hope.
Saw my very first barn swallow in the barn today (MA), so exciting! Last year I had a one nesting in my stall, hope I get another one this year
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I hope they all come back to your barn:)
i have seen two pair of Barn Swallows but there is some kind of Sparrow that seems to be jockeying for position in the barn. I hope the it goes away and my Barn Swallows will stay.
We caught a fast glimpse of a Bluebird last week and that was it.
At least the mosquito eating Purple Martins are back. We have room for 36, I’ve seen five pair so far. Last year we had at least ten pair.
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Well, they arrived, but they’re not nesting in my barn this year. For the last 25 years I’ve loved them. 4 years ago I had 33 nests. The next year Barred Owls discovered them and just ravaged them, leaving only 6 pair remaining. Then last year, the 6 pair returned, started getting killed – just one nest managed to make it. I see them zooming around the farm catching bugs, but they’re wise in not nesting. Saw a Barred at the barn just the other day. I’m so sad. 
Ours returned around April 12th. More and more since.
Looks like the rest of the gang arrived yesterday! When I got to the barn last night I see a couple moved in to a nest in my stall, so happy!! I just love them 
I love them too. Noticed the first ones April 21. Hard to miss: they dive-bomb us in the indoor, chattering all the way! (Oops: that’s in Southern Ontario)
Apparently there is some concern about the local population decreasing. They certainly aren’t about in the numbers we had a few years back.
Eastern Ontario…
Just saw some swooping in and out of the barn last week. Have not seen them in a couple of days, though.
It was very hot a few days last week, and today we’re back to freezing temps and cold rain.
Southern Ontario…Saw my first one about two weeks ago, and the whole contingent arrived early last week. Also have a robin that decided to nest in the barn this year. When it leaves the nest, I really duck!
N of the 45th parallel in MT here-- still in the teens at night and WON’T STOP SNOWING (although it no longer sticks). I was just wondering when the barn swallows would get here, but they’re definitely not here yet. This has been the longest “non-spring” ever…
I had a couple arrive a couple of weeks ago too, including one who took over one of the main nests in the barn.
A few days later, I was crushed to find him in one of the stalls, dead. I was so upset to think that he or she had come all the way home, and then died here.
That nest has now been taken over by two other swallows, and there are some more in the attached run in shed.
The whole contingent is not back yet. I hope they survived the winter.
I am seeing a wider than average variety of birds around my feeders though, which is also very exciting!
Awww, that’s so sad
I think there were a couple around this weekend, but I’m not positive.
So glad everyone is seeing their swallows return… I’m starting to get worried mine won’t be back. Last year our barn cat killed one of them, and I am starting to wonder if it was the mother, and maybe the other ones don’t know how to find their way back… is that possible?I swear ours were back in April, because She killed it on May 26th ( i remember because it was my birthday and I screamed at the cat that it was the worst birthday present ever!!! i was so mad at her.) Which also means that they had been there awhile and had babies already. Hoping that they are just late this year, but we are in Southern Michigan and I haven’t seen anything but red win blackbirds, sparrows, a grackle and some killdeer.
