I saw some awhile back but not yet in my neighborhood - although I'm not actually sure they didn't disappear from here some years ago. We used to have lots of them. Assume deforestation in wintering grounds has wiped them out.

The swallows have been here on the coast for two weeks, three pairs have been making daily appearances. I haven't seen them this morning in the snow :), but last Saturday when it was so nice, one even entered the swallow box mounted outside my kitchen window and peeked out at me all day. They won't really nest for another 4-5 weeks, but maybe it was staking a claim.

They have just returned to our place in the past week or so. They are a little late this year, but then so is everything else!

I first saw them here about April 8th circling above on and off, north of Edmonds/Meadowdale.

Summer skies here just south of plantknitter used to be peppered with them, their calls also a constant daily feature. No more. Olive-sided flycatchers have also largely disappeared.

We have had dozens of them since about April 8th. Even with the snow they are zooming around over the lake. A couple of days ago it was sunny and there were 3 pair sizing up the birdhouses for this year's brood. Unfortunately there were also a couple of nasty English sparrows vying for the same place. My DH is trying to figure out ways of detering the English sparrows permanently. So far, it's sparrows - 1, DH - 0.
We also had our first Goldfinch of the year last Wednesday and yesterday there were 3 on the feeder.

Dotty, I have a collection of old wooden kitchen spoons in my garden tools that I place in the entrances of the swallow boxes until about the third week in May - by then the sparrows should be nesting elsewhere, the swallows don't usually begin nesting until the last week of May, first week of June. So you can remove any nesting material now that a sparrow has placed, block the entrance for another three or more weeks.

So why did I have an open swallow box last weekend? DH couldn't stand it that the swallows were showing so much interest in it but couldn't access the opening. I kept insisting the swallows didn't want to nest yet but didn't win, and then the swallow made me look bad by going inside and spending the entire day with it's little face poking out. First fight between a sparrow and swallow and the spoon goes back until flying bugs are more plentiful and the swallows are really going to use the nest box.

Morz, what a great idea! We get two waves of swallows, first the Tree swallows, then the Violet-greens. I think it is the TRES that are competing with the sparrows now. Maybe the TRES will have to find their own homes and we will provide accommodation for the Violet-greens. Despite our lousy weather -- we have snow again this morning -- the swallows are swooping over the lake catching bugs.

The violet green swallows came back last month. Have been flying around where a pair nested last year but just checking it out. Last year a pair of VG swallows hatched three babies but then the european house sparrows pulled the babies out of the nest and tossed them to the ground.

That can't help.

We don't get swallows any more. Ever since the house sparrows arrived on the scene 3 or 4 years back the swallows don't. For years we had tree swallows nesting here, then they left and the violet greens came but now they have disappeared too. Right now these darn sparrows are trying to beat the chickadees out of nesting here. We've made the holes a little smaller in the nest boxes so the sparrows can't get in, fingers crossed.
On the other hand we have a pair of house finches building their nest in the boston ivy again and we have a pair of bush tits in the yard all the time, maybe they will be building one of their cute little hanging nests in one of our trees. They built a nest in a laburnum tree over at my son's place one year.

A......

we had swallows, not sure what kind, nesting in our chimney for three years in a row but they did not show up last year nor this one.

DH didn't believe me at first when I told him I heard baby birds through the bricks. But then he saw the parents swooping down into the chimney.