It’s not often that we have to report negative news from Barga but sometimes somethings have to be said. This is one of those times. In the face of probable incoming global disasters, famine and wars this amounts to next to nothing but still, is it indicative of a way of thinking and acting that just has to be mentioned and not passed unnoticed. The swallows in Barga are an annual feast visually and aurally with their coming heralding the arrival of spring and their leaving for the warmer climes of far away Africa, the rather dismal foretelling of the approaching winter. There has been a particular group of swallows who nest each year under the Volta del Menchi below Palazzo Pancrazi in Barga Vecchia. Their acrobatic flying through the open arches and walkways in the Volta has been one of the glorious sights of Barga in the summer. There has been a negative side their seasonal occupation – their droppings below the nests which falls onto the floor below. Local residents have over the years solved this problem by temporarily erecting small wooden panels below the nests to catch the droppings and so keep the tiles below a good deal cleaner.
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Since 2005 a family of swallows has built their nests from one the iron rings hanging in the centre of one of main arches. Beer festivals annually held in the Volta del Menchi during the summer has not been a problem for either the drinkers or the swallows. For the past two years their has even been a kebab stall in that area which did not create any problems for the famously strict local health authorities when they did their controls.
- images from the barganews swallow cam
BUT, yesterday somebody decided that the nests were no longer compatible with Barga Vecchia and removed as many of them as they could reach. They also removed and killed young chicks in the nests and then cleaned up the mess leaving them in a black plastic bag tied to the wall next to the ASBUC office. The local cats found the bag in a matter of hours and promptly spread broken nests and dead birds across the floor once more.
Today, nobody seems to be prepared to take responsibility for this act but maybe they ought to know that these birds and their nest were probably the most photographed swallows nests in the area with a webcam pointing 24 hours a day at one of them and images and films appearing often on the barganews website; here, here and an article that was written last year that as actually entitled ” A portent of things to come ? ”
Click on the link below to hear the swallows singing in the Volta del Menchi before their nests were destroyed