Let's Sing!

There are always swallows in the neighborhood, and one summer we had a pair nesting in our yard. One thing I remember about that year is what unfriendly neighbors they were.

A year ago today our yard was briefly infested with a swallow colony. They were all over the place. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy it if the swallows were always around, but watching them for a short time is always fun. They swoop and they dance and twirl. Aerial acrobatics are the order of the day.

This guy was singing merrily away on Joan's weather station when I shot this photo. A couple seconds after I took this pic he was gone, and I captured his replacement doing a touch-and-go landing (it became the 366 Snaps photo; see below). Immediately the perch went to a third bird, who promptly left (I got that takeoff, too, but not well). A few minutes later another bird was perched here, but facing the other way.

Meantime, members of the troop were checking out our red-and-white birdhouse. (No one moved in, though, unless you count the hornets.) But mostly they were showing off.

And mostly I was watching, and enjoying. Within a few minutes they'd come and gone.

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This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps.

Number of project photos taken: 70
Title of "roll:" Birds
Other photos taken on 5/22/2012: More birds! I shot about a hundred frames of Mr. Blackbird's Breakfast Party, and posted seven. We were still working in the yard; in late afternoon, when I took the Daily Flower Census, you could begin to see real progress.

Last May 22 was the day I started to give you a tour of our flower garden.