I am British, living in rural Brittany, France. We have an old stone house and a very large garden with many trees and shrubs, based in a heavily wooded valley. Bird life is pretty abundant here (we have turtle doves, cuckoos and skylarks for example). I am not an accomplished bird watcher but adore observing them. I have joined this forum in particular to find out more about swallows. One end of our house is undeveloped - called the barn - and when we first arrived here in May 2017 there were swallows nesting there in the rafters. They came back the following year, but in 2019 we suffered a serious house fire. The swallows survived and fledged but did not return the next year. Our house had been left a shell and had to be totally refurbished (completed 2021). A barn owl then moved in to our 'barn', and I assumed that that was the reason swallows did not return. Now, after 5 years without them, a pair of swallows is currently looking like nesting again in our barn. I do have questions about their behaviour so hope that I can find people in this forum I can discuss this with.