Exciting Day for the Swallows

    For the last few weeks, every time I walk from the carport toward the garden, I have heard the chirping of baby swallows coming from their bird house under the eaves, and I watched as the parents scrambled back and forth capturing food and bringing it back to fill the hungry protesting mouths of their young family.  Yesterday when I walked from the carport things were different.  I could still hear the chirping, but now it was emanating  from all directions instead of just from the birdhouse--the baby swallows had fledged.

    I spotted a couple of the fledglings on the clothes line, others on the rim of the gutter, and another on a branch.  It was an exciting day for both the young birds and their parents.  The photo above shows a young swallow and its mother on the clothes line.  Surprisingly, the bigger bird on the left is the baby and the smaller bird is the parent.

    Below is a photo of one of the young, who had not yet made the leap, still in the birdhouse.  The swallows were always making nests under the eaves of the house, so I built some birdhouses and put them up there and that is what they now use.

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca