BABIEEEES!

[ladykorinna]

Barn swallows, that is. They totally FELL OUT of their nest today - too young to fledge. The two that survived the fall were severely dehydrated and are both COVERED in mites. Because of the dehydration and lack of my head being dive-bombed, I'm thinking something happened to the parents

Comments

[aeshna5]

Good luck.Here in UK we have TV programme for 3 weeks each year called Springwatch, looking at different animal families through the weeks, with success, failure + plenty of surprises.

1 camera was on a swallow's nest + the female was seen incubating. But as they hatched the male drove thefemale off the nest, picked up a chick + dropped it on the ground. The cameraman replaced the chick back in the nest, but the father was intent on infanticide + removed all.

It was assumed he wasn't the father + wished to mate with the female + would then lay a fresh clutch, of which he is the father.

We're used to seeing this behaviour in lions, etc, but had not realised swallows will too!

[droops]

Moistened cat food (dry food in some milk) is what we've used in the past to feed chicks. I can ask my sister exactly what she used.