Barn swallows Gathering Mud

Barn Swallow Gathering Mud

Today my son and I traveled to Erwin S. Wilder Wildlife Management Area in Norton.  The idea was to hopefully to some macro photography since last year there was a good number of different species of plants, flowers, butterflies and insects to photograph at the side of the parking lot.  However, the share at least so far.  There were just some buttercups and dandelion seed heads present.  What turned a not so good photography morning to a more excellent one is that I noticed near where the car was parked there were barn swallows gathering mud and pieces of plants to bring to their nest.  Three years ago, I wrote a blog on the barn swallows building their nest at the Stone Barn in Dartmouth, Massachusettshttp://photobee1.blogspot.com/2013/05/barn-swallows-nest-building-at-stone.html

Today gave me the chance to photograph the barn swallows gathering the mud.  I set up my camera D 500 and my lens 200-500 on the tripod and focused on the swallows as they gathered mud.  I then attached my wired remote to the camera and focused where the birds were gathering the mud and then I went away from the camera behind the back of my car and used the remote to fire the camera as the birds came in.  In between the times when the swallows were there.  I changed focal lengths so I would gather more of the scene and hopefully be able to capture the swallows flying off.

Barn Swallow Gathering Mud

Barn Swallow Gathering Mud

Barn Swallow Gathering Mud

Barn Swallow Gathering Mud

At one point, rather than the pair of swallows coming in, three swallows were flying around, while one swallow came in to gather the mud and the other swallow chased the new intruder till it left.

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