Tree Swallow near Modoc Creek – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/160, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
Tree Swallow nesting season is in high gear in the areas I have been camping at in Idaho and Montana. There is plenty of squabbling going on near nesting cavities, both natural and at man made nesting boxes. The males seem happy to stake out a nesting cavity and make all kinds of noises while they do. They can be quite vocal!
I’ve been using my eyes a lot this trip trying to locate active, natural nesting cavities and I have found a few but while I observed them they weren’t busy with activity. I did visit an older nesting cavity tree I know about and found some Tree Swallows busy at the cavity but there were clouds overhead so the light was low and I wasn’t getting much shutter speed so I took more soft images than usual even though I bumped my ISO up to 800. I liked this image of a Tree Swallow near Modoc Creek because of the eye contact, head turn, colors and the pattern of the conifer needles in the background.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Tree Swallow photos plus facts and information about this species.
I have never heard of, leave alone seen 99% of the birds you feature. So I had no idea of what would flash before my eyes when I opened the tree swallow presentation for today! AWESOME!! This took my breath away!
I believe friends and I saw one of these in a blue spruce in their WI yard last summer., and what a complementation of colors!! It was the iridescence that caught our eye, time after time. Like a neon light in the blue-ish tree! And now, here are more tree swallows, and I’m home in Iowa! The WI one was smaller than my sources say these are – could I have confused it with anything else? Regardless, you have brought back some really special moments to me! THANKS!
Beautiful image! Thank you Mia. Sounds like you’re having a good time.
You only ‘like’ this image? You are spoilt. I love it.
Lovely!
I wasn’t aware thst tree swallows were so blue…this is a beautiful image. Love the blue of the bird, the silver of the weathered wood and the soft greens of the background. They work so well together….
Those are photorefractive feathers and they change color according to the lighting angle. The blue in this photo is phenomenally bright. I seldom see that through my binoculars.
The bird shows its stunning beauty here and the grays in the wood paly with the blue parts of the bird’s body.
A Beautiful photo, Mia.
WOW! a precious little jewel.