Barn swallow baby mama caught on film!
I’ve been watching this barn swallow all summer on the campus of Utah Valley University. She swoops around, chirping happily with a couple other swallows. Her nest sits atop a junction box in the rafters of a covered breezeway on campus.
Last Thursday, I heard teeny squawks coming from the rafters and looked up to see teeny bird heads poking out! I pulled out my Canon Powershot camera from my purse (which I’ve been carrying around expressly for times like these) and held an impromptu photo shoot. I’m sure it looked weird to people walking by since the nest is somewhat hidden in a back corner about 10 feet up. What can I say… I’m fascinated by nature’s little things. Like those tiny adorable all-beak little birdies!
The mama swallow knew I was there, but that didn’t stop her from darting by every minute or two to cough up some food for her babies. I got a couple decent shots of her hummingbird-speed movements and was surprised by the prominent white spots on her tail. I haven’t had the opportunity to really study barn swallows before… shows how much of a poser birder I am. These birds are “the most abundant and widely distributed swallow species in the world” according to the (helpful and recommended) Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Today (Monday) was the next chance I had to see them, and they’ve already grown to look like actual birds rather than slimy gerbil babies with beaks. I didn’t have my camera this morning (it was sitting on my desk so I would remember to upload the photos) but I confirmed that there are four fledgling birds who don’t all seem to fit in the nest together anymore. One was sitting on the pipe just above but it doesn’t look like they’ve flown yet. I’ll try to get some photos of them tomorrow.
(Maybe I’m a little less of a poser birder since I created a separate birds set on Flickr?)
