Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Boose
Great shots, Kevin.
I love barn swallows. When I did staff rides, the USAWC did the Antietam Staff Ride in June so it was always late May when I did my rehearsals on the battlefield. I could count on seeing lots of barns swallows in company with bluebirds, with their similar colors. There were usually a lot of both birds along the banks of the sunken road - peaceful pretty birds at a site of much suffering and tragedy.
Once, when we got to Cape May in late April or early May many years ago there was another tragedy. A storm had waterlogged multitudes of barn swallows and blown them out of the trees. Hundreds of the pretty creatures were huddled on and at the edges of the roads. I hope that most of them dried out and flew away, but a number of them must have perished.
Finally, when we lived at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1978-81, a family of barn swallows made their home in the eaves of our house. It was nice to have them around. If a neighborhood cat came too close, the barn swallows would strafe them.
Incidentally, the grackles and red-winged blackbirds have returned in force, and I saw the first robin of the year yesterday. The goldfinches are beginning to transition from eclipse to breeding plumage, and soon the forsythia, the daffodils, and the goldfinches will all be bright yellow.
Don
Don
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Thank you Don for those experiences.
My Grandfather in his early retirement years had a farm and Barn Swallows would nest in his "shop"
I recall his pleasure in watching them there. A very early memory of a bird was rescuing a Barn swallow, I was walking to his farm and a swallow was caught by a toe in the barb wire fencing. I was able although about 5 years old to free it and I can still recall the day -weird how the memory works.