[TN-Bird] "when the swallows come back to Rutherford County..."

Saw my first swallows of the year this evening--a few rough-wings--near Stones 
River, just off the M'boro greenway.  Yay!  I have a strong sentimental 
attachment to swallows from having grown up on a farm in rural western 
Massachusetts.  The barn swallows would show up in the Spring just about the 
time we finished cleaning up from the maple sugaring season, and leave about 
the time we finished haying in late August or early September.
Our old barn had lots of barn swallows, and there was a one particularly large, 
wonderful nest high up in the rafters that was used year after year after year. 
 My father, from whom I got my first knowledge of and love for birds, explained 
to me how the swallows would return to use the same nest every year, and keep 
adding layers to it.  My 6-year-old brain wondered about how many years they 
could possibly keep doing this before they'd hit the underside of the roof.  
Alas, one year the nest got too top-heavy for its own good and came tumbling to 
the floor.  Thankfully though, the swallows were not discouraged and built a 
new nest in the same spot.

Barn swallows also had a great time teasing one of our dogs by dive-bombing 
him.  This particular pup was a great jumper, with an impressive vertical leap 
from a dead sit, but the swallows knew the limits of his abilities and would 
always keep just out of range.

My favorite memories of swallows are of the times in the late summer, when 
mowing the second crop of hay, that the swallows would literally swarm around 
me to feast on the critters that I was stirring up with the cutterbar.  They'd 
swoop, dive, and turn as they chased bugs, and their amazing aerial acrobatics 
did a lot to relieve the tedium of seemingly endless circuits around the field. 
 It was not unusual to attract three or four dozen birds, and on the best days 
there would be four different types of swallows--mostly barn, with a good 
sampling of tree, plus a few cliff and bank thrown in for good measure.  In 
fact, it was one of those days when I first became aware of cliff swallows.  I 
recall being particularly pleased when I told my father about them as they were 
a new species to him, too.  Nice to be able to contribute to his knowledge 
after he'd done so much to develop mine.

pfw
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Paul F. Wells
Murfreesboro, TN 
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