Last year I wrote a similar post about barn swallows. In fact, the photos here are much the same – and likewise are taken about 200 feet from the far end of the pond where cables run along and above a street.
As I took these photos, over the course of an hour, about eleven fledglings were lined up and huddled at various points along a 60 foot stretch of wire. Without any signal I could discern, a small group of four or five would simultaneously launch from the line and confidently fly off, returning ten or fifteen minutes later. The reason for the groupings or their knowledge of when to take off (or the others knowing not to) remains a mystery to me.
That the camera can freeze these fractions of seconds of feeding time is remarkable. The parent birds are going at a good clip, and their “stop” in mid air to feed can’t be more than a quarter of a second.
There is an elegance I see in these images – at the confluence of time and space and motion, when the wings of the adult gracefully hold the air that keeps it aloft and the fledgling strains to present its beak with eagerness and trust.
All young should have such faithful, strong and committed parents as I’ve seen birds present.
Though an hour of taking these photos may seem a long time holding the camera and aiming it over my head, the truth is the little birds help me out. They sit perfectly contently between feeding passes by the parent, which might be every ten minutes or so. But long before I know from where a parent will come, the fledglings go into a frenzy of wing flapping and raucous call, as something makes them aware the parent is about to arrive. That’s when I raise the camera, which is pre-focused on the birds on the wire, and start shooting. Though I see it, the action through the lens is too quick for my mind to sort out. So, a few seconds later, when all has quieted I review the shots and hope they will be as good as they seem to be on my small viewing screen on the camera when I download them to my computer. Here are shots of the frenzy, though they don’t do justice to the true action.
SilverLining 