The Return of the Swallows

When we moved into our new house, there was a birds nest under the eaves of our front porch. It was a lot bigger than in this picture and made up of grass and mud. We knocked it down and didn't think much of it. A few weeks later, we noticed that the birds had come back and were re-building their nest. Every day we would find it about this big, and we would knock it down. We thought they would take the hint that WE live here now, and they couldn't have our house anymore. WRONG!! Those persistent little things kept coming back!















This is what they look like, cute -- huh? They were either on these beams, building their nest or sitting on the ledge above the front door. One night, one even got into the house!! I slept through the excitement, but I guess it gave everyone else quite the jolt! You may ask why we didn't just let them be and build their nest.......















This is why. Bird poop. Everywhere. It doesn't rinse off either. Also, mud and grass on my front porch every day. Also, after doing some research, I learned that swallows mate for life and return to the same nest every year. If we didn't solve the problem now, they would be back forever! They may still try again next year, who knows?















Since simply knocking the nest down didn't work, we tried putting tack strip above the front door so that they couldn't perch there. Wrong, they did anyway.















Then we read that a good way is to block off the nesting site so they couldn't get to it. Wrong again, they just built on the netting.















Then we tried a fake owl. Birds are scared of owls, right? Wrong! They stayed away for about a day before they figured out that it wasn't real.















Our last ditch effort was to put netting up completely covering the front entryway. We couldn't use our front door, but hey, the birds couldn't get in. They actually did get in one time, and were pretty freaked out when they couldn't find their way out. We taped the sides and weighted down the bottom. After about two weeks or so of not having a front door, we pulled back the netting for a week, no birds. I pulled it completely off the other day and still no birds!! I hope they gave up and nested somewhere else!! Who says you can't fight mother nature? Victory is mine!!