Looked outside one day and saw these.
Honestly, at first we thought they were bats, ha!
They are "Barn Swallows". They are actually a protected species. You can't remove active nests or harm them but it IS ok to prevent their nests and encourage them to go elsewhere.
They use mud and regular nesting material to make a hanging nest of sorts. "J" said they have had them before and they are very messy. We had some years back at the old house.
This was as far as they got, definitely starting to be a mess. I stood on a chair and cleaned it up and then had to come up with a way to discourage them.
The ledge is not very big so we had to get creative and so I came up with this idea:
I bought a pinwheel at the dollar store (or $1.25 and up store, ha)! I used some painters tape to hold it in place and now when the wind blows it spins. We also saw them fly by a few times and the breeze from their wings made it spin. It works. It doesn't look the greatest but from what we've read in our birding books, they will come back to the same place year after year and so once they get a nest established elsewhere, that will be their "go to place" and we'll be able to take this down.
We went outside and told them we have 10 acres, there is a barn and shed too, heck, there are tall eaves on the house. Anywhere but the white porch, ha. "J" at the front of the property said that she has seen a pair building a nest in her old shed. We are hoping that it's the same pair. We also saw some mud starting to accumulate on the corner of an overhang out near the barn. We shall keep an eye on it.
