This young swallow has just emerged from our Stanley oven (bottom warming shelf) having been rescued an hour previously from… one of the goat drinkers in the barn!!! We discovered him/her floating on the top, very wet but still alive. Presumably, he had been on a ‘maiden’ flight and had mistimed a landing or run out of steam or simply crashed landed!! When we lifted him out of the water, we held him upside down and gently massaged the very small breast.. whether this helped or not we don’t know but after that he began to gape (which we took to be a good sign) and so our next priority was to get him dry (hence the Stanley). He was in there about an hour and it was rather wonderful to then open the door and see a very alert, bright eyed bird looking back at us. In fact we were rather worried he might fly out into the kitchen (not a great idea with four dogs and two cats in the house) so we quickly shut the door and then re-opened it just a crack, enough for Jack to get her hand in and scoop him up.
After the obligatory photo shoot, we popped him back in the barn on top of the straw bales in the hope that mum and or dad would find him and give him a few lessons on how NOT to fall in the water on his next flight!! A little later he had moved a little bit and was perched on the edge of a bale, contemplating the world before him. A little later again and he was gone. In the evening we were treated to several swoops and dashes and dives in and out of the barn by several swallows: we very much hope our youngster was amongst them!!
This story is a classic example of how fragile the relationship between livestock and wildlife can be: the barn that was built purely to house the stock, is of course a perfect home for the swallows as well, and yet, within it lie hidden dangers...