The baby birds-- home again.

Last year when we were unpacking our moving boxes here, there was a nest of Barn Swallows out near the top of the columns on the front porch. Two adult birds, five eggs. The mama bird sat on the nest day in and day out, and before I started opening the boxes every morning, I would check on the nest. The mama bird got to know us and didn't squawk at us after a while when we were out on "her" porch.

Not too long after we moved in, those eggs began to hatch, and soon there were five little mouths to feed. Both adult birds flew back and forth to the nest, feeding all those open beaks. I remember the day I unpacked the binoculars-- I ran to the front porch to get a better view of the babies, and to this day, I keep the binoculars in the front hallway, always bird-ready.

One of our neighbors told us that those baby birds would come back every year, and they would have babies who might also come back, and so on, down through their generations. About a month ago, the Barn Swallows did come back. We know they're the same birds-- they seem very familiar with every inch of our wrap-around porch, and they're sitting on the ceiling fans out there again. The breeze will blow the blades of the fans around, and there are the birds, sitting on the blades and going along for the ride, just as they did when they were babies. A Barn Swallow carousel. The birds fly in and out and around the columns of the porches, seemingly effortless in their flight, not crashing into pillars and posts as they weave in and out, back and forth.

Two of the birds are using last year's nest. Two other birds have built-up a nest that is just opposite last season's nest. That particular nest was just half an inch high last year, but the new couple has moved in and made improvements and now that nest is a mirror-image of the nest we watched so carefully last year. Another Barn Swallow couple has begun a nest on the porch near the back steps. The cats sit out there near the kitchen door and they're watching the progression of that nest-- quarter of an inch high one day, an inch high a day later.... in a few days, that nest also will be nearly four inches in height, built of grass and bits of mud. When the birds aren't building, they're riding on the fan blades and looking down at the cats.

The Barn Swallows are very vocal, and extremely curious. They sing and chirp all day long, and I've caught them watching me through the kitchen windows. They will sit there on top of the woodwork around the columns, and look at me as I stand at the sink or the stove. They stare at me as if I'm in a bird-cage of my own. A kitchen-cage, with pots and pans and plates, and no ceiling fan to ride on.

In another month or so, we will have lots of baby birds to watch. Three nests, filled with open mouths and stretching beaks, waiting for their mamas to feed them. I will be going from one end of the porch to the other, binoculars in hand, waiting for the first brave ones to flap those wings and propel themselves into the garden.

Our second season in this big old wonderful house with the baby Barn Swallows.