Hi Blake,

When I returned home from a (birding) trip on Monday I discovered that a
pair of barn swallows had started a nest on our front porch. Since
their concept of neatness doesn't match mine, I removed what they'd
started over the front door, and -- as they wanted to continue
construction -- I moved a chair onto the front porch and read a
newspaper there until they found a nesting site somewhere else. I
probably would have let the construction continue if they hadn't been
right in the main traffic pattern (where they would have been disturbed
anyway), and then I probably would have removed the nest after the
season.

I did have violet-green swallows in the exhaust vent for our shower one
year. This wasn't a problem from any standpoint except that the
nestlings began cheeping for food at first light and helped us start our
days earlier that summer. I didn't bother to remove that nest, but the
birds probably found a better spot the following season and didn't
return.

Paul Webster
PWebst25 at concentric.net