June 18, 2024
Whenever I go out on a picture walk, I never know what I’m going to find. Sometimes it’s a new dragonfly or a new butterfly. Sometimes it’s just a robin with a mouthful of worms. Sometimes it’s a rare bird, like this black-billed cuckoo, or a shiny, iridescent dogbane leaf beetle. Almost everything captures my attention, no matter how small. Today, it was a tiny barn swallow.
I was on an early morning ramble through the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery when I spotted this little ball of fluff sitting on a railing near one of the overgrown ponds. From a distance, it was barely noticeable, but with the help of my 600mm lens, I could see that the ball of fluff was a baby barn swallow, a fledgling. There were no adult birds nearby that I could see, but I knew that mom or dad would be back soon to feed their hungry little offspring, so I planted myself in a good spot for pictures, but not too close, and I waited. It wouldn’t take long for mom and dad to return with provisions.
I was totally focused in on the baby, but every time it opened its mouth, I knew mom and dad were flying around in my periphery ready to deliver food. What surprised me, though, were the ‘fly by deliveries,’ where mom and dad never landed; They flew in, hovered for a moment, stuffed the food in their baby’s gaping mouth, and flew off! It happened so quickly that I never really saw what was happening, I just kept taking pictures as quickly as I could. It wasn’t until I brought the pictures up on my computer that I could see how mom or dad rarely landed. I was also able to zoom in and see what they were feeding this little one. My favorite shot was the parent bird shoving in a mouthful of blue damselflies!
As I walked away an hour or so later, I was left wondering how this baby bird, with its underdeveloped wings and tail feathers, even made it to the top of this railing in the first place, and how it would return to a safe spot once evening set in. By the time I had to leave, that baby barn swallow had already been out on the railing for well over an hour. I hope it eventually made its way to safety.
Here are the most notable shots from today’s barn swallow surprise– with captions:
