Barn Swallows Perform a Sky Show

I was glancing out my large plate glass living room window when I noticed lots of birds--swallows--crisscrossing the sky over my backyard, so many in fact, I decided to take a look. The time was about 6:00 pm with a heavy cloud cover giving the sky a brooding and dark cast. In such light, it's impossible to make out colors. The only think you can really discern is a bird's silhouette. And I quickly detected the deep forked tail of the Barn Swallow (#1).

Though there's only a handful of swallows to choose from here on the East Coast, I still found it difficult to distinguish between them until I learned to focus on their silhouettes. I learned this trick from the inside cover pages of my Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies (1980). I took a photo from the back page to show you the first four bird silhouettes: 1) Barn Swallow; 2) Cliff Swallow; 3) Purple Martin; 4) Chimney Swift.  This is not a complete list, but you can see my point: the deeply forked tail of the Barn Swallow cannot be confused with, say, the Cliff Swallow whose tail is merely notched.

About two dozen barn swallows provided me an inspiring aerial display on this late afternoon. To make things more interesting still, several dragonflies competed for the air space, everyone moving too quickly to hold within the lens of my binoculars or camera. In fact, the only image I can share is that of the blank sky. At least you can appreciate the mood of the sky.  You'll have to trust me on this one. One last thing before you go . . .

If you love birds or have children (8 to 11) who love them, you might like my trilogy Of the Wing.  Learn more about it at . . .

https://www.pkbutler.com