The Real Beauty of Tree Swallows

This morning Brad & I headed to our favourite location to photograph Tree Swallows, Neville's Pond located just inside Paradise offers a little haven for these beautiful little birds. Each spring dozens of these swallows come to Neville's Pond to nest in the boxes we have scattered both around & in the pond.  These fast flying little birds spent almost all of their time in flight and even when perched they don't seem to sit long. That is until they begin to nest.

Once the males arrive they begin to check out all the available nest boxes and quickly claim territory. Once a mate is found the pair quickly gets the process of nest building underway. During this time period the pair spend most of their time hanging out around the box guarding it from other swallows who are relentless in trying to take over the box in the early season.

It is then that we place interesting looking perches such as the ones in these photos for the birds to land on. Then its just a waiting game until you get one or both of them on the stick!

So far 6 nest boxes have swallows guarding them, plus one more pair right in my back yard. Over the next few weeks almost all of the boxes all have swallows occupying them. These photo opportunities will not last long because once the nest has been constructed the female will spend most of her time in the box incubating eggs while the male busily feeds her. Expect more posts to come of how the Tree Swallows are doing and of course more photos!

Below are a few more of my favourite images from our morning session

Notice the wings back on look like a butterfly, this is the first time I've noticed this

A short clip of one of the nesting pairs