Sarah

Last week on Sunday some beautiful tree swallows returned to my farm. They have been zooming around and chittering and spending a lot of time perched on the electric wire leading to my house, so that always gives me a good view of them.

I cleaned out the duck shed, and was careful to put aside some of the large soft curly duck feathers that were not soiled. The tree swallows simply love to use big white feathers in their nest (the bigger the better- but not hard flight feathers), and I like to play "catch a feather" with them during the nest building season. (that won't be for a while) On a breezy day I will stand by the pond and let a feather float from my hand off into the breeze. The tree swallows will snatch the feather from right in front of me and it is really cute to see them go off with it and make such a fuss over their prize. Sometimes they will fly very high and drop their feather on purpose and zoom under it to catch, and drop, again and again. I believe that flashing white is a large part of the mating display of tree swallows (they have a bright white belly) And making such a show with a feather might be akin to a guy who is happy to flash a fat roll of bills after payday. A tree swallow with a big white feather is a happen' dude. They will also snatch a floating feather off the surface of the water. A swallow WILL pick a feather up off the ground if they must, but they are vulnerable to predators when they land on the ground- even for a spilt second- so if you would kindly toss some feathers into the air- I am sure they will reward you for your kindness with some acrobatics.

Last summer when visiting Newport Kentucky (across from Cincinnati) I discovered hundreds of Barn swallows and cliff swallows hunting along the floodwall. I believe they must have been nesting nearby in the girders under the massive bridges across the Ohio river. The steep grassy slope of the floodwall gave the swallows a chance to hunt close to the ground without actually coming close to landing. Barn swallows are real opportunists to hunt low flying insects and you will frequently see them following a bushhog on a cool day. After becoming aware of the swallow population in Newport, I decided that this year I would have to make a trip to the flood wall with a bag of feathers (Barn swallows ALSO line their nests with feathers of other birds) In a few weeks I hope to share some pictures with you of the swallows coming in for some handouts.

The meadowlarks have started singing. Flocks of Red winged blackbirds are roosting in the cat tails at the pond. I cringed to hear a starling right on the roof of my house, as I turned with distain to see the offending non-native I was embarrassed to find that I had been fooled by a mockingbird.

I hope next week that I can tell you about the arrival of my purple martins.

Love Sarah