I stopped on the bridge crossing a shallow river in our city to watch the birds. There used to be hundreds of ducks, crows and my favourite, swallows, hanging around the rocks and shoreline at the bridge.
This year, a smattering of ducks, a few crows and only a dozen or so swallows.
The swallows nest under the bridge, in the trusses. It is a pretty safe place, but the traffic over their heads! I guess they don’t mind, or they wouldn’t be there.
I love the way swallows fly. They put Tom Cruise to shame. These are the top guns of the natural world. It is amazing that they catch insects on the wing, zooming around at mach speed. I could watch them for hours.
At our favourite lake, in the canoe, my boyfriend and I would be in the middle of their acrobatics, mesmerized, as they dove and swooped around us. You could hear their wings slicing the air.
Take that Maverick!