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Kelsey Clark

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Kelsey has many fond memories of family bush and camping trips across South Africa when she was growing up and for her, this sparked a growing love for the wilderness and opportunities to seek new adventures. Although she studied BComm Financial Management and ...

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16 Comments

on Swifts, Swallows and Martins – Who is who?

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So interesting the difference in the birds and to me they all look alike above my head. But about 9 years ago we were presently surprised with with a pair of lesser stripped swallos nesting in our open lappa. Someone broke her nest and she is now here by my big kitchen roof and we have named them Jessie and James. All through the years when she has chick’s and they can fly, then she waits for us outside to show us her chick’s. And Jessie talks to me and I talk to her and she answers in their own manner. Very special these two birds. Last year I saved her one chick that had a sore foot, the little one could not sit properly on the fence so I picked him up and massaged his little foot and then it started to rain. I put the little one back in the nest and two days later I picked him up again on the grass and massaged his foot again and put him back in the nest again. He was fine after that and flew all over the show and Jessie came to say thank you.

Wow! What an amazing story Valmai – thank you for sharing with us 🙂

Lovely story Valmai..nothing quite like a ‘wild’ pet !

What a coincidence : Today the first two house martins arrived at my place back from southern Africa. A warm day of spring accompanied them back to Europe. It is always a great pleasure for me when they arrive at their (artificial) nests that are awaiting them after their long and dangerous journey across the desert, the Mediterranean and the Alps.
So it is really great to hear more about these fantastic birds and how to identify them. Thanks for the article!

My pleasure Christa, I am glad you enjoyed the article and it is great to hear that you are keeping an eye on the House Martins arrivals.

Fantastic article Kelsey, explaining the habitat and differences between these little birds that seem to fly by at the speed of sound. I think I will print this out to study before my next trip. Perhaps I can increase my bird identification knowledge by at least one!

Thank you Denise. I’m sure you will be able to identify a few more birds on your next trip! 🙂

Thank you for this article. Can you write another one in the future that explains the differences in laymen’s terms between herons, cranes, and storks?

That is a great idea Stephen – keep a lookout for that blog coming up soon!

Kelsey, thanks for the pictures and information of the three bird species. The pics are beautiful!!

Pleasure William, I am glad you enjoyed the pictures.

So right Kelsey, I’m always confused as to who’s who and they do move so quickly and don’t settle long enough for me to identify them. This is a great lesson in helping identify them and I will certainly put it into practice! Thanks for the insight and the wonderful pictures 👌🏻❤️

What an excellent article on these birds Kelsey! We have all three of these birds in my area of Canada so this will help me sort them out. The photos are beautiful. I had to smile when I saw the name of the Horus Swift, he certainly looks like the sculpture of Horus that we saw in Edfu, Egypt.

Kelsey thank you so much for this lovely blog. The pics are beautiful and the descriptions very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Great and very informative article Kelsey !

Wow, very interesting!!! Thanks for this info. We often have them flying over our house and can never tell if they’re Swallows, Martins or Swifts. I shall now try to identify what they are!

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