As kids, we saw many different species of birds around. Among them were Bob Whites. I haven’t heard or seen a Bob White in several years. Where have all the Bob Whites gone? For that matter, I haven’t heard any Killdeers either. It’s also been awhile since I’ve seen any of those pretty blue Robin eggs lying on the ground. That could be due to the fact that since it’s summer and not spring now, all the robins that did manage to hatch in their nests or on the ground have grown up and “flown” the coop” leaving their mothers with “the empty nest syndrome”. I’ve always wondered what causes robin eggs to fall out of their nests in the first place. Yes indeed, yet one more thing to add to my ever-growing “Mysteries of Life List”.

 

Another species of birds we didn’t see too often as kids were swallows. Now this phenomenon I can readily explain. During the season, several swallows would build their dried mud nests on the side of the overhead beams at the bottom floor of our barn. Our father always called them “Barn Swallows” which makes sense since we only ever saw their nests built there.  As kids we just couldn’t resist the temptation to knock down all their nests. We used the handle of a pitchfork and totally destroyed all the nests. It was fun to see all of them shatter in little dried mud pieces. Later on when we asked our father where all the swallows were, he stated in very harsh terms, “You kept knocking down all their nests, so they LEFT!”  I guess they all went back to Capistrano early where their nests would be safe.(Unless our family was planning on a trip to California). Before they left each year, as a direct result of our knocking down all their nests, they used to dive at us when we went out to the barnyard. They would come within inches of the top of our heads. I guess they figured out who was knocking down all of their nests. As a matter of fact, in those days, NO birds fared too well at our place.

 

Now days, it’s really nice to go out to my barn and see swallows doing their acrobatic flying. The main reason is that I’ve hidden all my pitchforks and at my age I’ve forgotten where. There are even Swallow’s nests along the overhead beams of the horse stalls. I guess they felt safe in building their nests there since horses can’t hold pitchforks even if they found them! Well, now I have to go out and clean stalls. Now, where did I hide the pitchforks…?

 

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