When do the swallows return to Cape Girardeau? Right now.

Some of you, if you keep reading this column, are going to be mad at me. And some of you will want to give me a medal.

This involves birds, so if you are wishy-washy about birds, you can skip right to the latest news about volcanic eruptions, and I'm not talking about the heated fissures of rhetoric in our nation's capital.

On the front of our house is what we call a porch, whose roof protects the large living-room windows as well as the front door.

The large windows have at bit of architectural decoration, which creates a tiny ledge -- just over an inch or so -- across the very top. Whoever designed this trim was savvy enough not to leave the top of the trim perfectly flat. Instead, the top is beveled at a 45-degree angle. Why? To discourage birds from roosting and nesting there.

Apparently, this teensy design element has, over the years, been successful in keeping birds from taking up residence in this weather-protected environment.

Until this year.

This year, about a dozen barn swallows have decided to test the slanted window ledge as a potential for their nests.

In case you aren't familiar with barn swallows, they are beautiful birds with distinctive tail feathers. They swoop just a few feet above the ground and, in general, are good birds to have around if you want to get rid of flying insects.

Oh, and barn swallows build their nests out of mud.

Several days ago the swallows started swooping onto the itty-bitty ledge over our living-room windows. For a couple of days they seemed to be testing the swoopability factor and potential balance. Two of the birds were posted as sentries, and their job appeared to be to see what kind of problems human beings, or their cat, might pose in the long run. These guard birds were fearless, paying little or no heed as we went in and out or let the cat in and out.

On about day five of swooping in and out, the birds must have decided the little ledge had some potential for nesting. Four tiny bits of mud appeared on the ledge, spaced about two feet apart. As best I could tell, the birds' engineering and construction staff wanted to test adhesiveness or other factors that are important to a good construction scheme.

My wife and I had many discussions about the swallows. We enjoyed watching them in their nonstop swooping maneuvers. We were quite taken by the beauty of the birds.

On the other hand, did we want birds plastering the top of our living-room windows with mud? And -- let's get right to the elephant in the room -- did we want to deal with bird poop all summer?

We are not novices when it comes to bird nesting. Before we moved three years ago, we had a succession of bird families that nested in the wreath on the patio door of our previous home. We watched robins, purple finches, Carolina wrens and cardinals make their nests, lay their eggs and send their fledglings flying. And we dealt with bird poop summer after summer.

Thank goodness no hummingbirds were attracted to the wreath. We've seen what those birds can do in the poop department. You don't want them nesting anywhere near you or your house.

We don't know where our swallows were finding mud. Despite the wet spring we've had, it hadn't rained for several days when all this started. But swallows, like so many other creatures, are so much smarter than we are. I guess we should never second-guess their methods.

After the four test bits of mud appeared, very little else occurred. Waiting for the mud to cure? Waiting for us to take countermeasures? Who knew?

Finally, I knocked the bits of mud off the ledge, indicating to the swallows that they needed to scout other home sites, which are certainly plentiful in these parts.

OK. I know some of you think we should have left the swallows alone. And, yes, the Good Book says we are to be good stewards of all that the Almighty has created.

But we humans have been given dominion over all creatures. I'm pretty sure that's in there somewhere.

And in this case, our dominion trumped the aims of a dozen industrious swallows.

And the swallows haven't been put out all that much. They appeared to have found another nesting site under the eaves of a house.

Our house. This time over a bedroom window.

Maybe this is a workable compromise. We'll see. For now, the score is pretty even. I don't intend to let it get out of hand.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.