I don't know how management would feel about a swallow nest on the wall of this apartment. And if I decide to leave, what would they do to the nest -- let it stay until the babies fledge? These look like young swallows, first year, still creamy on the belly.

Nests are constructed in seven to fourteen days, depending upon the availability of the season and availability of nesting material.

Four to seven eggs (usually 4 or 5) take 13 to 17 days to hatch, and the babies fledge in 18 to 23 days. Nesting pairs may occur in small colonies or they can be territorial, driving competitors away. But they join flocks of other barn swallows soon after the young are on their own. And migrants can occur in flocks of hundreds,

I will definitely be here two more months. Sounds like the nest will be built, eggs laid/hatched and the babies gone by the end of July. So I think I'll just keep my mouth shut and figure that this pair likes the complex and will continue to look for a place around here to call home. I'll work on pics, but not sure my little Canon PowerShot can get enough of a closeup.

But I don't know what they are. The pair briefly roosting over my front door have moved to the porch. I'm not out there very much, and they have discovered an old wasp nest that they are taking apart and devouring. They aren't purplish, they have a dark back and wings, and a dark collar around the neck (at least one does) with a creamy breast, and orange-ish, rose-ish blush at the throat and around the face. Can't see the tops of their heads, they are way up high.

Interesting thing that makes me reject finch as a type -- when they flatten themselves to the stucco to eat the bugs, their tails fork into two short, needle points! But they are short tails compared to a swallowtail, and not solidly dark like swifts I've seen.

No sign of their nest yet, but I imagine they have built one. Can't find the box with bird books, and the internet site I looked at wasn't much help. I need an old outline page, I think.

This is a fantastic short video of a pulsing ribbon of starlings, the reward for two women out paddling a canoe on a blustery day. It's given me an idea for a scene in a novel, which makes it a two-fer. The only thing I've ever seen that is even close to this was watching over a million bats leave at sundown from under the Congress Street bridge.

Gluten-free girl turned me on to this one!

Murmuration by Sophie Windsor Clive