Times of Malta
19 hours ago
Natalino Fenech
Four young swallows raised in a mud nest in a garage complex at Tas-Sellum, Mellieha, have fledged and left the nest in the middle of last week after hatching on July 7.
Another pair of swallows have bred somewhere in Xaghra, as a family party of two adults and three fledged young were seen at Ta’ Gajdoru, Xaghra, on July 4 and on the following day.
In a way, it was quite a miracle that the Mellieha swallows fledged. The site they chose for their nest was a very unusual one as it was built against a concrete beam inside a corridor that serves as a driveway for garages. The swallows were making their way through one of the shafts and literally had to dive down the height of three storeys in the narrow shaft to find their way into the corridor where the nest was situated. When the birds hatched, one of the owners of the flats overlying the garages decided to install a screen as a sun shade in the shaft, unknowingly blocking the swallows’ passageway.
But the birds started using another shaft as well as the driveway, which they had not been seen using before.
The area adjacent to the garages is a construction site and workmen were taking their break in the same corridor the swallows were using. The workmen were fully aware of the swallows’ nest and in no way did they molest them. Very often, they sat and watched the swallows coming in to feed their young.
Garage owners noticed the birds flying above their heads but some of them were not even aware of the nest.
The breeding swallows were first noticed by Michael Sammut, a most active birdwatcher. The managing warden of the Ghadira nature reserve, Charles Gauci, had been observing a pair of birds feeding together and collecting feathers to line their nest from the islands at the reserve.
The ones nesting in Gozo were first observed by veteran ornithologist Joe Sultana.
Individual pairs of swallows have nested in Malta from time to time. In 1974, a pair had bred in an old farmhouse in Mqabba. Another pair raised two broods in the Buskett area in 2004. A pair must have bred somewhere again last year as a family party of six, four very recently fledged young and two adults, was seen at Ghadira last August.
