If you’ve visited over the years you’ve undoubtably noticed that I love taking pictures of the swallows at Belair. Of course, I just plain love swallows, whether they’re flying in front of my house or swooping past as I trek Nisqually. For some reason, though, I’ve never had particularly good luck photographing them except at Belfair, where they seem to have a penchant for sitting on railings, whether on the boardwalk railing on the southern end of the refuge, the only place I’ve found Violet-Green Swallows,
or the bridge railing at the northern end of the refuge, where you’re most apt to find barn swallows.
I’ve read that swallows often mate mid-air. That may be true, but this pair of tree swallows seemed to prefer solid ground, or at least a boardwalk railing. I wonder if that’s why I often find multiple pairs of birds perched on the railing and largely indifferent to my camera?
