Birdwatch at RSPB Pulborough Brooks with Peter Hughes

The pair are using the same nest as last year and currently they are incubating eggs and by the time you read this, hopefully the eggs will have hatched and the young will be being fed. Last year the pair raised four young.

Swallows will nest in a variety of mostly open habitats, as long as there are suitable nest sites. Sheds, barns and out buildings of all kinds are used as long as there are ledges or beams wide enough to support the nest and there are windows or holes to get in and out. Swallows will also nest under the eaves of a building if they are broad enough to provide shelter and there is a ledge or sill on which to place a nest.

They are of course insect eaters and because of this, they are often attracted to grazing livestock. Wetlands, whether they be rivers, lakes, reservoirs or marshes are also favourite hunting grounds. Pulborough Brooks, being a wetland and largely cattle grazed, produces just the sort of conditions that a swallow needs.

Areas of water also provide the necessary mud with which they build their nests.

At distance, they appear dark above and white below, with the most obvious feature being their long tail streamers giving them a distinctly forked tail. Up close, however, you can see that they are in fact a glossy dark blue, with a deep red throat patch. They have long, pointed wings and enormous mouths, adaptations that allow them to catch and eat insects on the wing.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette June 20