Sunday, June 14, 2009

Barn babies

Quality workmanship at its finest! Smile everyone!

About two weeks ago I shot a few photos of Barn Swallows working on their nests on the back of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge nature center. Something tells me there are a few laws being broken by the Swallows. They were building their nests on top of the fire sprinkler heads. There might be a safety issue with that choice of location, but seeing that Barn Swallows don't read very well and aren't always up on the latest fire codes, we'll let them slide.


"You gotta problem with this?"

I went back Sunday morning to check out their construction efforts, and what a good job they have done! One nest had at least five of the begging little barn beasties packed in it. Watch out mosquitoes, you're gonna be dinner soon!


Male in the front, female in the back...notice the expression, need I explain?

What a gorgeous bird!

One of our neighbors at the BirdMobile is lucky enough to have a nest with young'uns under his awning. He's not real happy about the mess underneath, but I think he appreciates the fact that they will be zooming around eating the bugs that bug us!


Our youngest neighbors. We may have to call that mobile home "BirdMobile 2!"

One of the proud parents! You can tell by the pose.



All we have under our awning is a pair of noisy House Sparrows. If I was in England, I would be happy. I'm not in England. I'm not happy. Especially at 5:30 in the morning ...CHIRP...CHIRPCHIRP...CHIRP, what a lilting little melody...

Last, but not least, we found this barn Swallow looking for directions on our trip to England. I think he found his way.

4 comments:

  1. These are lovely photographs. They all look so healthy. Must be plenty of bugs in the area to go around.

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  2. Hi Dave,
    Oh this is so cute to be able to see that and to get pictures. They are wonderful shots, and I love the fourth one. This youngster portrait is awesome. A really good job and observation...

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  3. What a nicely written and illustrated post, Dave!

    Swallows are such amazing birds. Both their building and flight skills are unmatched by any other bird. Every now and then I get obsessed with the idea to get a good in-flight photo of a swallow, with very little results so far.

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  4. ...a fun post again. You do such a good job narrating the photographs. They made me laugh (especially the male/female expressions).

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