Swirling Energy
June 11, 2023 - Swallows and Martins
Spring slips into summer and I am working through the photos and videos from the joyful blur that is migration. Having waited until I was better rested, this is less chore and more joy than I anticipated! I take very few videos (for many reasons) but watching these videos I slipped so quickly into the feeling of being in that place.
Watching this flock of tree swallows swirling around me I feel that cool morning, the warm sun on my face, the gentle rocking of the water, and the exhilaration that comes with being “inside” a swirl of birds. Tree swallows are (mostly) quiet and there is a flow to their movement. The flock moves as one and every bird moves independently and somehow the spirals all work together.
These videos were taken on my iPhone. The birds are close but small and perhaps you can see how challenging it actually is to take zoom photos of them in flight. Challenging - and so much fun! In my best moments, I enter some kind of flow with the swallows where I’m not thinking, I’m just moving with their rhythm and my camera is tracking all by itself. That kind of flow is both energizing and relaxing.
If the energy of tree swallows is very zen, the energy of purple martins is more like a group of children on the playground. They are loud, brash, noisy, assertive and I can’t help but laugh when they make that rolling sound with their throat. Purple martins are joyful and entertaining - they make me laugh! Here’s some video of the spring housing selection where there was definitely some disagreement as to who was owning each nest box!
Housing selection may be a full contact sport, but eventually they all figure out how to get along - and boot out the house sparrows together. That stunning color when the sun hits those feathers the right way is just royal and regal enough for this bird.
If tree swallows are zen and purple martins are brash, I think I’d say that cliff swallows are all business. They too swirl around but there’s an intensity to their purpose. The martins use ready-made homes, the trees use cavities, but cliff swallows build their nests from mud. In this case, they build on the underside of a bridge over the creek. When a big truck rumbles over the bridge, they will all come swarming out with an energy that almost feels protective.
They have to go in and out, picking up mud, bring it back, building, and repeating until their nests are built. The youngsters pretty well destroy the nests each year, so they are starting mostly from scratch. They have nested under this bridge for all of the ten years I’ve been walking around the lake - I hope they never leave.
I have (many) fewer photos of cliff swallows than I do of tree swallows, martins, barn swallows, and even the bank swallows and northern rough-winged swallows I see less often. Partly their choice of dwelling, partly the truth that it’s easier to grab focus on a swallow flying low over the water than high in the air or with a background of trees and brush. I’m also unwilling to climb through the poison ivy filled weeds to take a look from below the bridge.
I don’t have any video of barn swallows but I can’t leave out these funny feathered friends. I can’t neatly categorize barn swallows. They are utterly elegant in flight with their long, decorated tail feathers. They are determined and not easily deterred from building their nests on docks and buildings, even when humans might prefer they didn’t. They are exceptionally clear communicators - everyone knows when they are displeased. They are prolific bug eaters. They are lightning-fast, and sometimes they are silly!
Barn swallows also have to rebuild their homes from the mud every year. Perhaps my word for them would be resilient. They too have a swirling energy, as they will often circle around me eating bugs over the fields on summer mornings.
Summer is fast approaching but so far we’ve been pretty lucky here in Kansas City. We could use a bit more rain but we’ve been spared the oppressive smoke and summer heat so far. Sending lots of love to all the beings who are suffering from wildfires, floods, droughts and all the other challenges life on this planet brings.
May each of you find small beauties, moments of zen, time to laugh and the determination and resilience for life’s challenges.
Hoping to be less purple martin (loud, brash and territorial) and more barn swallow (determined, efficient, and resilient) in my actions. But they are are all uniquely wonderful to behold!
Your photos are world-class, Karen. The light through the swallow wings is sublime.