Back in May, I wrote a column about tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). I was celebrating the 23rd anniversary of this column and I was sitting out and enjoying a gorgeous day when I noticed a female tree swallow in the ground next to my driveway. A photo of tree swallows adorned the cover of my first book, here was a tree swallow in front of me and I was able to observe the swallow on the ground (which is relatively unusual for swallows). It all made sense.
Well, I was once again confronted with swallows on the ground while visiting Cape Cod earlier this month. The only difference was that this time the swallows were barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and they were standing on a sandy beach by the ocean. There was no nest-building activity to explain this unswallow-like behavior. The birds just seemed to be resting in an area where there was nowhere else to land. No trees, no wires strung between phone poles, just the beach. For me, it was rare and wonderful.
Barn swallows are clearly birds that will tolerate the presence of humans. Before they nested in barns, they relied on caves for nesting sites. Large wooden barns full of livestock couldn’t have been a more attractive alternative for them. Basically, humans were building artificial caves and making sure that there was a ready supply of flies and other insects for the swallows to feed on. Moving in must have been a no-brainer. At this point, barn swallows have almost entirely abandoned “natural” nesting sites for manmade structures of one sort or another.
Barn swallows build nests of mud that can easily be molded and affixed to the beams of a barn as easily as to the sides of a natural cave. Both male and female will gather mud one beakful at a time and start the work of plastering and shaping the nest. Just the way humans reinforce concrete with steel bars, barn swallows will reinforce their mud nests with strands of grass. When the little bowl is complete, it will be lined with feathers.
The female will lay 4-5 eggs that will hatch about two weeks later. Then, the pair will share the job of feeding their chicks and, if they are lucky, they may even have the help of their own chicks from the previous summer. This cooperative strategy allows young “apprentice” birds to practice feeding babies before they have their own. It may also explain why barn swallows can sometimes have two clutches of eggs in a single year. In contrast, tree swallows usually quit after one successful nest.
As I stood on the sand and watched the barn swallows flying up and down the beach, I began to notice that they would land in the same places again and again. This allowed me to get close enough to get some great “swallow on the sand” photos, but it also allowed me to wait until takeoff so I could get some nice flight photos. Don’t worry, though. We were more than six feet apart at all times, so social distancing was no problem.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 23 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service and the Massachusetts State Parks and currently teaches high school biology and physics. Visit www.speakingofnature.com for more information, or head over to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.