There’s a bird nest outside my front door.
I’ve known about the nest for a while, but this year was the time I actually saw it in use. My front door opens onto a porch, and the nest is right inside the corner of the porch roof on top of a column. I first noticed the chicks when they got old enough to yell – and they yelled at any stimulus: me opening the door, a guy delivering a package, the camera flash, etc.
It wasn’t until a week later did they become distinguishable enough to identify: they’re barn swallows
So named because they can swallow entire barns, I figured I should keep my eye on them lest they eat my place. They’re just giant mouths that scream. My presence in front of the door would keep the parents away, so I set up the camera on a tripod to take pictures every few seconds:
Then one day while upstairs I heard yelling much louder than before – I looked out and one was on the porch roof! It just sat there for a while ‘til I opened the window to get a better picture, when it flew clumsily (like Woodstock) and took a few attempts to perch itself on the nearby powerline. It then proceeded to yell at every passing bird for the next hour for food.
Eventually it realized “Hey, I’m not getting fed!” and found its way back to the nest, as I saw all four of them in it the following day.
Three days later I saw the nest completely empty, but an hour later three of them returned. And they have some confusion when one of them flies back to the nest and the ones in the nest think they have food. This continued for several more days – they’d leave the nest but be back for the night, and the amount of chirping/complaining grew louder and longer as it got harder for all of them to fit as they climbed over each other trying to get in.
But now that they’re gone, I can finally clean the porch; they left a huge mess.
Orthallelous 
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