Wild Bird Wednesday 93 - Welcome Swallows

I spent a few days down near the coast last week - wonderful location, wonderful weather and no phone reception!

As autumn starts to find its feet here, many birds start to move north for the winter (remember I'm in the southern hemisphere!).  Our summer waders are heading to the far, far north and some birds just move north within Australia.

One bird that leaves parts of Australia at this time of year is the Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena). While the "welcome" part of the name is a reference to the birds arrival in the spring, the area where I live never entirely losses its Swallows in the winter.  A few hang around, hawking for what ever they can find.

As a result, I am more likely to notice the swallows leaving than returning.  Most, if not all, of the birds from Tasmania move north for the winter and if you happen to be on the coast of the mainland of Australia at this time of year you can see them gathering in flocks as the arrive and take a break before moving on.

On the last day of our week away we woke to find over 150 or so Welcome Swallows around the house.  An hour later they we all gone.  I have seen this type of behaviour before - and it makes me think about my own migration!

When the birds were not on the wing they rested on a wire fence behind the house - when they sat there I was reminded of musical notes on staves!  I don't know what tune the swallow notes were writing, but they looked great.  As soon as I saw how the fence looked through the viewfinder of the camera I knew that these images would work well in "panorama" format.

These images really do need to be clicked on so you can see a larger version.

Now its your turn - click on the link below and off you go!

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