That’s a pretty wonderful recollection —- glad you had such glorious experience!
Judy Thurber Liverpool Sent from my iPhone > On Jun 9, 2021, at 7:05 AM, Meena Madhav Haribal <m...@cornell.edu> wrote: > > Hi all, > > Barn Swallows are fascinating creatures. Recently, I was on dirt road, in a > rural area of Grand Forks ND, cruising slowly to look for grassland birds. > And I parked at one wet location to record some birds. All of sudden I found > four or five Barn Swallows flying around the car and some would pause flying > in front of my open passenger window. Initially, I thought they were looking > in the rear view mirror, but they often looked at me through the window > facing me. I felt this behavior odd. And a few minutes later one came inside > my car and sat of my dashboard on the passenger side of the window. I was so > transfixed and awed at the creature and its beady eyes watching me. It sat > there for a few seconds. I did not understand what they really wanted. I have > a video showing the birds flying around my car and one landing on the side of > my car near door handle and a photograph of one looking inside my car > watching me. I can't post those here. > > It was a cold morning with temperatures hovering just around 40 F. And my car > was hot as I was using heater inside my car and also sun was up and heating > the metal body of the car. One more thing happened in these areas was when I > drove through wet areas was hoards of gnats would fly around my car and > sometimes it looked like a thick cloud. On several occasions I have run back > into the car and shut the windows. So I deduced that behavior of swallows was > to get warmth and these insects. May be they were telling me to move so I can > disturb the insects! > > Later, at other locations when I was driving on a cold morning with temps in > low 40s, I would see Barn Swallows following my car back and forth and > catching insects that my car disturbed. They would come up close to my car > and fly away at the last moment before hitting the car. There were other > swallows like Tree and Cliff but they did not do this, they remained far away > from the car. On these occasions I purposely drove very slowly for the > benefit of Barn swallows. > > I also remember several years ago, in Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, > along the main drive as I was driving the swallows were following my car on a > cold day. Initially I was thinking that I am going to hit them, but realized > that they are smarter creatures and knew when to move away from the car. > > So I think Barn Swallows have learnt this behavior to follow cars to find > insects along the car. > > I would love to hear if anybody else has observed this behavior for Barn > Swallows. > > That cute little creature in my car staring at me made my day for me! Later > that day I also found Bank Swallows, Cliff Swallows and Tree Swallows in > hundreds. So I call it a Swallow day of my trip! > > Cheers > Meena > > Meena Haribal > Ithaca NY 14850 > 42.429007,-76.47111 > http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ > Dragonfly book sample pages: > https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1ngrZelDNo5QnFDMl9BdVNlLXc > Road Trip to Africa Book Preview > https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KsoxFFcMNSck8y_qpxNHqefq4iL-VSSS/view?usp=sharing > > > > > Subject: Re: Barn Swallow question > From: anneboby <anneb...@aol.com> > Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2021 15:41:46 +0000 (UTC) > X-Message-Number: 6 > > Further to Bob Paxton's comment about Tree Swallows' love affair with feather > lining of their nests, I have found these birds very resourceful with their > feather gathering depending on the nature of their local habitat. For years > I have monitored nest boxes in Upstate counties of Schenectady, Saratoga, > Schoharie and Montgomery. Depending on location, these swallows gather > feathers of a wide range of species, as well as in varying quantity. Rural > areas are more endowed with local fowl than are suburban areas leading to > easier gathering. > For instance the nest boxes at the Landis Arboretum in rural Schoharie Co. > with roosters crowing in the distance had much larger gatherings of goose, > duck and chicken feathers in general than did the boxes at West Hill, a > suburban residential area in the Town of Rotterdam in Sch'dy Co where Great > Horned Owl feathers made an almost annual appearance. > > In some areas the tan body feathers of barnyard geese are very popular, but > so can be white feathers from domestic ducks. Less numerous are flank > feathers from male Mallard, Wood Duck and body feathers of Wild Turkey. > Some of the rarer choices are from Great Blue Heron, Great Horned Owl (body), > No. Saw-whet Owl (primaries) and the strangest of all: Common Nighthawk. One > nest in Montgomery Co contained 5-6 nighthawk feathers including flight > feathers (rectrix and wing) suggesting that this swallow had found a dead > nighthawk and was harvesting feathers from it. Nighthawks molt away from > the northeastern U.S. spring nesting season. > Feathers, flight and body, from local passerines also show up in these nests > on rare occasion. But far and away, body feathers of barnyard fowl are the > most common Tree Swallow nest lining material in these counties. > Bob YunickSchenectady > > > > > --- > > END OF DIGEST > > > -- > > NYSbirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L > 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
