One of the pleasures of summer (to me) are watching the Swallows. I allow them to build on the house or barns or wherever they want to build.
They are a lot of fun swooping for insects over the yard and farm, chasing flies and moths and mosquitoes with high dives and sharp turns…truly eating on the fly!
These little birds arrive in spring…rather the middle of spring, their long forked tails and silvery wings and orange throats are unmistakable. Throughout the day we hear their jubilant twittering-warbling, bzzzz,click-click sounds as they court each other and care for their young.
I like to look out the windows as one nest that is, well, RIGHT there. If they could they would dive-boom me, but they can’t! I’m inside…tee hee!
Then comes the day I dread…the call that goes out to all of the swallows in our area….”It is time! Hurry! Gather together! Come quickly, in singles or pairs, come all ye families; the seasons are changing, winter, that time of woe, will soon fall upon the land.”
That is when we see the electric lines starting to fill with little birds, first just a few, then gradually more and more…they swoop down upon the pinto bean field, flying over the yard, then back to sit on the electric line.
Gradually, gradually over two or three days the line grows fuller and fuller as the swallows gather from near and far. Their sounds a deafening chorus. Then one day the longing for Spring and Summer becomes too much; they lift off in a loud swoosh heading toward Central and South America.

This year I missed the huge take off; I wanted to be home for the leaving! I wanted to wave GOOD-BYE! I wanted to holler loud and clear—
“You’ll Come Back NOW…You Hear?”
The song of the swallow has fallen into silence.
We will have a few flocks of Swallows arrive off and on for a little while—Swallows moving from areas further north of us. until those brief visits are over. I will enjoy their stops for rest and for food. Then wave them on with a Good-bye and welcome to return.
Your friend,
Linda
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