Tree Swallows Have Migrated Into Northern Utah
Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!
Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!
I was thoroughly delighted to capture several late summer Barn Swallow photos during my last trip to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I was truly thrilled.
Yesterday, I shared photos of baby American Coots. Today, I am sharing an image of Barn Swallow chicks taken on the same day and location as the young coots.
One year ago today, I photographed this Barn Swallow perched on a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sign from the auto tour loop at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
While up high in the Uinta Mountains yesterday morning I photographed this female Tree Swallow checking out a nesting cavity in a Quaking Aspen.
Last week while I was high in the Wasatch Mountains I was able to take female and male Barn Swallow photos as they perched on a fence next to a creek.
Today I wanted to share swallow photos that show the six species of swallows I see and photograph in northern Utah while they are here for their nesting season.
When I took these Barn Swallow images earlier this week I wondered if the swallows I was photographing would be my last images of them this year.
This Bank Swallow photo feels like I took it a lifetime ago. It was taken on July 30, 2009 at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge shortly after I moved to Utah.
Last week before the smoke started to darken the skies in northern Utah I had a few seconds to photograph an adult Cliff Swallow next to a steep mountain road.
Yesterday morning I photographed Cliff Swallows gathering nesting materials and fighting in bright morning light high in the Wasatch Mountains.
This morning I wanted to share two Barn Swallow photos that I took two mornings ago on the north side of the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
I was able to focus on a nearby adult Cliff Swallow as it warmed up on the dirt auto tour loop road and take a nice series of images of it in the soft light.
A little birdie told me that Tree Swallows returned to the marshes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge about the middle of this month.
When this Barn Swallow came in to land it struggled a bit with the wind which is why its wings were raised to regain its balance in this image.
Tree Swallows and other birds should be nesting in the Uinta Mountains by now and I am itching to hop into my Jeep to drive up there to find them.
Perhaps the next weather front coming from the south will push these Barn Swallows into northern Utah, I know I will be watching for their arrival.
I was glad to be able to photograph Bank, Barn, Cliff and Tree Swallows perched on top of a stand of phragmites near the auto tour route on the refuge in early morning light.
The soft, early morning light was beautiful when I took these juvenile Cliff Swallow images and I am pleased with how the photos came out.
May is a time of renewal at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and as the marsh begins to green up the migrant birds return and along with the year round residents their songs and calls can be heard over the wetlands.
When I opened this adult Cliff Swallow image on my computer at home the first thought I had was that it looked like the Cliff Swallow was surfing on a phragmites "wave".
Tree Swallows were the most numerous of the swallows I saw and at the far northwest part of the auto tour route I found bunches of them resting in a stand of phragmites so I decided to get out, set up my tripod and photograph them from across the water.
I'd driven up into a Wasatch Mountain canyon and was waiting for the sun to rise over the mountains when I spotted several juvenile Barn Swallows perched on a fence right next to the road in lovely morning light.
The sack of crap was open, it doesn't matter to me if they left it open or if a critter opened it but that sack of crap was what was attracting the Northern Rough-winged Swallows and photos of these birds with dog waste shouldn't exist, yet now they do.
While these Barn Swallow photos aren't million dollar shots the experiences I shared with my mother while we photographed this bird together are worth everything to me.
Of the photos that I took that morning I liked this one Rough-winged Swallow the most because I could see its entire body while the other swallow had the out of focus perch in front of the body of the bird.
While I photographed nesting House Wrens in the High Uintas the last day of May I also photographed nesting Tree Swallows in the same Aspen tree in a cavity a bit lower on the trunk.
Barn Swallows are like tiny, feathered brick masons. One pellet by itself is nothing but combined pellets form the nests these birds use to raise their young in.
That one midge I saw in the restroom at Bear River MBR did cause me to wonder if the swallows will show up early this year in northern Utah or will the predicted cooler weather cause them arrive at their normal time.
While stopped at a gate at Red Rock lakes NWR a Tree Swallow flew in and landed on a fence post so close that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to focus on it but I had to try.