Swallows, back from Africa

The first time we saw swallows was on Thursday, last week, from the Center, although it has been this weekend when we saw small groups feeding and resting close to the farms that are in the surroundings of the marsh of Gautegiz Arteaga. It was very interesting to see that one of them was ringed and that it could be a specimen that has been ringed by the Center within the monitoring campaign on the Barn Swallow that we are carrying out since several years in the farms of Urdaibai.

Two of the swallows sigthed yesterday in Gautegiz Arteaga, one of them ringed. 2014/03/15

We see the first swallows in Urdaibai in March, and the first pairs take up the nests in April. This depends greatly on the weather conditions they find on their way back from their wintering areas in Africa.

The swallows are progressively sighted from the south of the peninsula to the north as every year; we have proof that in Andalusia the first swallows arrived in the beginning of the year and even that in many towns in the south of the peninsula are now beginning to breed. As an example, two collaborators of the Center who are from Cadiz, Carmen Azahara and Vicente de Alba, have sent us some photos of nests with the pairs settled.

A nest of swallows in El Torbiscal (Sevilla) 2014/03/08. Authors: Carmen Azahara and Vicente de Alba

However, the swallows seen in Urdaibai should have begun their migration days or weeks before from Africa and now they are going towards their breeding areas in Europe, so we do not know sure if these swallows that we have seen will remain in our surroundings or if they will continue with their migration to the north, being Urdaibai just a stop in their long journey.