Comments

  1. Ice Swimmer says

    It wouldn’t take a huge flood for the nests to be inundated. I think the photos convey the muddiness of the environment in which the swallows live.

    Am I right that the nests and light were at a problematic angle and photographing from the water would have been hard due to backlight from the sun (apart from making the photographer rather wet and muddy unless a raft was available)?

    The sand martins/bank swallows (Riparia riparia) we have here are a cousin species to these swallows.

  2. Kengi says

    Beautiful birds. Very cool photos.

    We have a bunch of barn swallows in a nearby forest preserve. I haven’t found where they perch or nest, but you can see them “hunting” over the stream that flows through the preserve, swooping down and grabbing bugs just over the surface.

    I have lots of pictures. Of black outlines when the shutter was fast enough to not blur. Of tan blurs when the lens was open enough for color. Better for me to just put the camera down and just watch them. They put on wonderful displays as they zoom along the stream and then break off and flit through the trees.

  3. says

    Ice Swimmer:

    Yes, I was at a bad angle. There was only one place I could shoot from without alarming the swallows, and they alarm easily.

    Kengi:

    I have lots of pictures. Of black outlines when the shutter was fast enough to not blur. Of tan blurs when the lens was open enough for color.

    I have a lot of those pictures too! :D

  4. quotetheunquote says

    Ice swimmer @1.

    No need to worry about nest loss here! Those hollows aren’t nests, they are (I suspect) created by the swallows as they excavate to obtain mud for their their nests. Cliff Swallows build beautiful, vase-shaped nests on vertical surfaces (like cliffs, or -- more commonly nowadays -- the concrete beams under highway or railway bridges).

    These nests are a real wonder of nature: see, for example, here:
    http://www.arkive.org/cliff-swallow/petrochelidon-pyrrhonota/image-G93094.html

    It takes a fair amount of mud to create one of these nests, so many, many trips by each pair of swallows is required.

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