“Good Luck” Heads South

As the dog days of summer wind down, a sign that fall is upon us can be seen gathering on the telephone and electric lines that run along roadways and across fields on our farms.  By the hundreds, swallows congregate in the evening hours like tiny notes on a musical score.  They gracefully shift positions along the wires with slender wings fluttering fifteen times a second.  Their forked “V” tails make this evening exercise seem effortless.  They make little noise as they peer down from their lofty perches.  Occasionally they dart off to swoop and snag a last-minute bug meal as they prepare for another evening in Pennsylvania before their long trip ahead.  Soon they will migrate to South America where the weather is warmer and insects abound.

I get a bit melancholy as I watch the antics of these agile insect eaters in the weeks following Labor Day.  I am sorry to see them go south but know the cycle is key to their survival.  Our harsh winters would starve the swallows.  I have to remind myself how wonderful it feels to watch them return every spring.

I never tire of watching them work as pairs to build or repair mud nests under the rafters of my barn.  Within a few weeks, those nests are near to overflowing with four or five hungry, feathered mouths that open wide each time a parent swallow alights with lunch in its beak.  I marvel that baby birds somehow manage not to tumble over the edge of the nest in their effort to be first to feed on whatever insect delicacy is served by their hard-working parents.  With hardly any hesitation, the adult swallows deposit the bug morsel and dart off again, sharing the task of finding food for their nest full of begging babies.

The adult barn swallows tolerate sharing their barn with livestock and farmers.  They swoop off the nest as we approach, chattering if we get too close to their offspring.  It becomes a game of sorts for the swallows, as they see how much they can startle us and make us duck our heads in reflex reactions to their dive-bombing flight, narrowly avoiding collision with a last-second swerve.

As the end of summer approaches, the swallows’ nests are empty as parents and youngsters spend hours in flight, searching for food.  They are my frequent and much-welcomed companions during the hours I spend mowing and raking hay.  They entertain me with their aerobatics over the tractor and I feel good to be sending an easy meal their direction.  I’m happy when I still see a few hold-outs keeping up with my rounds in the field as we wind down our season’s hay-making activities.  I know that soon these useful partners will begin their flight to another hemisphere to help farmers south of the equator keep flying insect pests in check.

As a youngster, I learned that swallow were considered good luck.  It was good to have them in your barn.  Unfortunately, when I was six years old, my parents’ barn burned after lightning struck it.  The entire barn, including the swallows’ nests, was consumed by fire but no livestock were lost.  Soon a new barn was erected and became home to my parents’ commercial herd of Hereford cattle.  But no barn swallows built nests inside the stable.  Barn sparrows moved in with little hesitation, but it took many years for the swallows to take up residency again.  When the first mud nest appeared, it was cause for celebration.  Our barn had once again become home for these beneficial birds.

I never knew why swallows were considered a symbol of good luck until I recently did some research on them.  I learned that sailors on the high seas gave these birds this distinction because seeing them was a sign land was near.  Swallows do not travel far from land.  Their aerial presence was a sign that homecoming was imminent for these weary ocean navigators.  Swallows are found around the world in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.  Before they had the convenience of man-made nesting sites --- our barns and bridges --- swallows nested in caves or on cliff faces.  Their numbers increased in North America during the last century, but seem to be dropping off as changes in land use and management have altered the availability of insect food.

Swallows are a sign of good luck for sailors and farmers.  They are a litmus test to the health of our environment.  We need to keep them coming back.  I want to be able to celebrate their homecoming each year and partner with them as we F-A-R-M, enjoying the beauty of their flight and the benefits of their voracious appetites for bugs.

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