Clare Wishart and the swallow nest at her back door.PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY 061113WCBRCBIRD05
Clare Wishart and the swallow nest at her back door.PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY 061113WCBRCBIRD05
A Marton woman is amazed a pair of swallows have hatched a nest of chicks in a Christmas wreath on her back door.
Clare Wishart said the wreath stays up all year but this time it has the family of birds as extra decoration, and they have stayed put forweeks as the door is open and closed many times during the day.
She knew the birds were about on October 14, the day of the big storm, when she opened her back door and a swallow blew in.
"It spent the night on top of a big painting in the lounge. I let it out the next morning.
"The following day I opened the windows in the morning to lots of chirping and then a nest was built."
The birds are not bothered by the traffic in and out of the cottage or Clare's pets.
"I open and close this door and yet the female swallow sat on her eggs all throughout. My sheltie dogs, Darcy and Sarn, sit on this porch most of the day, and my female cat Coffee is often sunbathing herself on top of the railings, yet the swallows were unperturbed.
Photo/Bevan Conley
It's not the first time animals have amazed Clare for Christmas.
"Your young readers may also like to know that right on Christmas Day 2012 one of my little black bantams suddenly appeared with 10 little chicks following behind her. She had been sitting on eggs next door at a dairy farm, and on Christmas Day decided it was the right time to make an entrance.
"At that same time, I suddenly had two families of hares turn up on my property, with their six little leveret babies, who spent most of the day lying on my driveway sunbathing themselves right outside my house.
"They remained here right throughout the drought.
"Quite extraordinary, really. Nature is truly amazing."
She expects the chicks to fully fledge in another week or so and take off.
