I had a plant production nursery on Tamborine Mountain in SE Qld during
the 1970s and 80s. About 1980, I built a fairly large
packing/potting/work shed open on two sides. Shortly after, a pair of
Welcome Swallows moved in and built a nest. They raised 4 young and
quite soon were again brooding eggs. Between September and May, they
raised four clutches of four young from the same nest - a total of 16
young. By the end of May we had 18 swallows in and around the shed.
Through the working week, there were 4 or 5 people working in the shed,
most of whom took a keen interest in the goings on of the swallows
(helped I guess by the fact that they knew I was pretty keen on birds).
The following spring, three pairs had nests in the shed all of which
raised young - the original nest was used again. We tolerated that for a
while but with so many birds coming and going and staff and packed
plants being pelted with swallow pellets, we eventually had to
discourage them by putting shade cloth over the open sides. Can't say
that I took a great deal of notice as to whether they returned to the
nest at night - it was always good to get back home and relax after a
busy day in the nursery. Looking back now, it would have been an
interesting banding project had we known at the time what was ahead - it
would have been interesting as well to know whether any individuals of
the two new pairs which built nests the following year were progeny of
the original pair.
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