Had three pairs of swallows return and take up residence, two pairs in last years nests and one single swallow inside a pend with a door either end, not ideal but I left the door open for it, I never saw a mate at first but one finally appeared, they/it left the nest for very long periods and someone closed the door, but a pair returned at this point and visited the nest occasionally, the eggs never hatched, but the one single swallow still came back, and back, the other two nests fledged all in one morning, zipped about like mad things for a few hours then gone, and the lone one(possibly pair) were nowhere to be seen, by the afternoon they were all gone.
A couple of days later the lone one returned, visited the nest then sat up on the roof twittering all day, and the next day, and every day for a week alone, it was definitely gone the day before the mass fledge, possibly locked in a barn in a local farm overnight, this happens a lot here, they go in to get flies around cattle then get locked in, then let out in the morning.
Is it possible it missed the take off to migrate? delayed by the instinct to wait for eggs to hatch? or locked in somewhere on take off day?
A couple of days later the lone one returned, visited the nest then sat up on the roof twittering all day, and the next day, and every day for a week alone, it was definitely gone the day before the mass fledge, possibly locked in a barn in a local farm overnight, this happens a lot here, they go in to get flies around cattle then get locked in, then let out in the morning.
Is it possible it missed the take off to migrate? delayed by the instinct to wait for eggs to hatch? or locked in somewhere on take off day?