Today's picture is of Taxes and momma. I very rarely see him nursing now and in fact her bag has really reduced in size which tells me that she is keeping him from nursing and is ready for him to be weaned. Poor boy, this is gonna be fun. I will wait until next weekend I think, he will be three months old on the 15th.It has been very very hot today, 94 degrees F. I spent as much time inside as possible. I didnt get to but the lumber today either as Tiffany was delayed and when I phoned the store to find out if the price was still valid tomorrow he told me that he had run out of them anyway and would be getting more in tonight!!! Just as well, I would have been really miffed if we had gone all that way for nothing.
Four of the baby barn swallows flew outside today with their parents, just one lagging behind. I am sure it will follow soon. I was interested to see when I looked online that they have two lots of babies every summer. They dont use the same nest for the second lot of babies, they make a different nest, but when they return next year they will reuse the nests. This because of lice and mites which have gone by the following year. They also say that the second lot of babies are quite often fed by the fledglings from the first group along with the parents. I nearly lost one of the babies from the other nest in the old barn. I found it floating on the top of the water bucket when I went in to feed tonight. I dont know what made me look in there because the stable is empty at the moment, but there was the poor little thing looking helpless floating there. It obviously hadnt been there long because it would have got soaked and drowned if it had. I took it out and got a ladder and put it back in the nest. I hope they are going to be okay because after this I read that you can very rarely reintroduce a baby back into the nest because the others will jump out when you get close. I just held my hands over the sides until they had settled down and when I looked this evening they all seemed to be there and okay. I will see if they are still being fed by their mother and father tomorrow. I will be really upset if I have messed it up.
Well it is very late again, after 11pm. I am really battling with the heat, maybe that will mean that the hot flushes will keep me warm this winter LOL. Oh well. (((((HUGS)))))) to all.
Lori
xx
