I just make a summary of arrival of swallows at Mai Po Village as follows:
First date of breeding signs of Barn and Red-rumped Swallows
Barn Swallow
Winter 2006-07: around Chinese New Year, i.e 18 Feb 2007
Winter 2007-08: returned at 26 Dec 2007, singing at 16 Jan 2008
Winter 2008-09: returned at 14 Feb 2009
Winter 2009-10: returned (seen at fishponds nearby) and singing at 31 Jan 2010, started building nest on 9 Feb 2010
Winter 2010-11: no sign yet
Red-rumped Swallow
Winter 2006-07: ????
Winter 2007-08: return at 22 Nov 2007, second pair returned at ~15 Jan 2008
Winter 2008-09: ????
Winter 2009-10: singing at 30 Jan 2010
Winter 2010-11: returned at 31 Jan 2011
It would be nice to see some weather information with this observations. Could anyone help to find it out? I think simple information such as 'warm', 'exceptionally warm', 'cold', 'exceptionally cold', normal, would be good enough to let us to have some ideas. For example: I would say this winter - winter 2010-11 is exceptionally cold.
[ Last edited by yyattung at 1/02/2011 11:29 ]