Barn Swallow

Last Friday morning, three of us visited Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The first thing we observed was a Tom Turkey displaying for a hen. We then continue down to the morning blind, where we met Shawn Carey, who was set up to photograph, hopefully, the swallows landing on some perches. There were a number of birds flitting by and Canada geese coming in to land. I was able to get Canada geese landing and a female red-winged blackbird in a tree singing.

Canada Goose Landing

Red-winged Blackbird Singing

However, for the time that we were there with Shawn, no swallows landed on his perches. At a swallow box near the blind, a female Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) was bringing in material to build the nest inside the box. It was fun watching her as she struggled to get large pieces of material through a small hole. In the meantime, the male tree swallow sat on top of the box and watched.

Tree swallow Building a Nest

Up above and a little further away, barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) kept landing on a bare branch and by continuing to watch and with some luck. I captured some pictures of the barn swallows in flight taking off from the branch.