A tree swallow in the late spring takes a brief break from hunting for insects on the wing over the waters of Long Lake.
Tag Archives: tree swallow
The One That Got Away
I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a series of pictures about the ones that got away — pictures where I almost got what I was looking for, but one or two things didn’t come together like I hoped.
I spent a lot of time watching this swallow and took some pictures as he sang. Tree swallows don’t usually open wide to sing but they do open wide to yawn. The swallow was several feet above me, so before taking a picture I waited until he angled his head down towards me to get a more pleasing profile. But when he yawned he threw his head back and I couldn’t get the angle I wanted.
The thing I do like about the picture is it reminds me of the expression on Sam’s face after we adopted him as a kitten and took him to the vet for an exam. An instrument was inserted in a place none of us wants instruments to be inserted and a look of great surprise shot across his face.
Peeking Out
A male tree swallow peeks out of a tree cavity where it is building its nest
Tree swallows nest in seemingly every tree cavity during the spring at Ridgefield. I love when they poke their heads out of the holes and made an effort to photograph them this spring. For this accommodating swallow I photographed it from both the front and side. It was a cloudy day so I set the exposure to blow the background to white.
Disheveled
I had settled in to watch a nuthatch flying back and forth to his nest when I noticed this tree swallow and his mate in the tree not far from me. I shifted my gaze and my camera lens back and forth between the two sets of birds for some time. Since the swallows weren’t disturbed by my presence, I used the opportunity to try some close-up shots of the male.
The male looked a little disheveled with a feather out of place, understandable given the frenetic pace of the nesting season.
Feather Bed
I spent many hours in May at Ridgefield watching tree swallows nesting in seemingly every available tree cavity. In the first few weeks, I tried in vain to get shots of them collecting dried grasses to line their nests. Never did get that shot but was even more pleased at the end of the month to catch this male coming back to the nest with a large feather (large to him at least) to provide a soft feather bed for his mate and the coming hatchlings.