Swallows are amazing clever little things of beauty. It is hard to forget the rush of air I felt when these little characters zipped by my head ......🤭
Oh Jo Alwood, excellent work. The brief intros really make an excellent addition to the original edits. The intro for the 3rd bit was just about perfect with the little clip of the mother bird feeding the parasite baby. That section really made me think of Attenborough's excellent BBC documentary "Life of Birds" where cuckoo parasitism is featured. Thank you for another excellent video!
I love to hear that hearty praise from you, Scott. And you know that I wouldn't be making these compilations if it weren't for you. Adding them to my list of activities and putting my productions on a set schedule has given me such a boost of creative energy and enthusiasm. By now, my husband is used to hearing "Scott says" or "WorldScott says". Thanks.
The tree swallows are great, they return to our nest boxes that we’ll put out in late April. We’ve also got a spy cam in one of the boxes. It’ll be our 3rd year filming them. Pretty cool process I gotta say.
I’m sure you’re right about it being a cool process. Just being able to watch them go to and from the nest is cool, but watching the babies hatch and grow: wow!
They’re very social, and allow you to come very close but become very territorial just days before the young fledge. The males dawn song is beautiful. Thanks for posting, from Cape Breton Nova Scotia!
@@christophe3281 It's cool to know that much about their habits--when they're social and when territorial. I filmed them before they even laid eggs, so they were tolerant of my presence.
Oh yes. I can't get enough of those swallows (but the swifts are too high for me to film). Did you see the vid I just posted about how a swallow's eyes are like a hawk's rather than a songbird's? And I'm working on the next one, which is about how they fly. So yeah, ya gotta love all swallows and swifts.
Violet green swallows always nest above my room in the summer. They are so cool! Although I am sad that they only come in the summer and spring and I have to wait.
The violet green swallows are here making the nest as I type! They arrived in late February but haven’t started nesting since mid April. It’s super cool watching them swoop down to catch the feathers that I blow up into the air. I’m super exited to have them back.
Although swallows certainly catch flies,Berta, they are not technically "fly catchers". Here's a link to a movie I made about one of the fly catcher species: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ywKyHpMrTY8.html
In my home country in eastern Europe, swallows are black(on top)and white underneath..We dont have variations of colours..Also what i noticed is ,that they arent so human-friendly,they are very elusive,rarely do they ever come close to a human..But they are easily spotted in the air,they are unique..Anyways whoever had a close encounter is lucky,and some people that they even got to hold em,really i dont know how you guys did it..Because as i said they are elusive..Or meybe its me..I dont know..All i know is, i love them..!!!
Loving swallows makes sense to me, Antony. May I suggest another movie I made about them: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ktAI2QxJl60.html
All 3 are wonderful Jo! How do they catch insects while swooping and diving - just amazing. Great action footage at the end with the cowbird attack. It's all a blur until you showed it in slow motion -wow!!
They couldn't possibly be as agile as insects, but they're more agile than the flycatchers anyway. I wish I could capture their flight on film, but they're too fast and erratic.
Glad you enjoyed it Jimmi. I'll post a second ten-minute movie about other swallows on August 2nd. (I've put myself on a publishing schedule: a new short every other Tuesday and a compilation of old movies every third Friday.)
Looking forward to visiting the Black swifts at Box Canyon falls Ouray Colorado , in the next few days. Your videos always help keep me excited about all birds !!
Oh, Kathleen, that's something you must remedy! Because no movie can show you how dazzling they are in flight. Waterways with plenty of insects is a good place to look for them. I'll be publishing a second installment about swallows on August 2nd. I hope you'll check back.
Yes, I did it all. I compiled some of my old movies, wrote a script that introduced each of them, and narrated it. I'm with you on loving swallows. In fact, there's a Part Two of the topic. It includes Barn Swallows, Cliff Swallows, and an assortment of other swallows squabbling on utility wires.
Thank you, Gary. With stars like these, how could I make a bad movie, right? We don't get the Violet-green where I live either, but we vacationed in Colorado last summer, and I relished a chance to film them.
Jo Alwood I'm jealous I'd love to see them. Maybe I'll travel to the USA some day. The swallows have been in my village for the past few weeks I've been out watching them. They are the only birds I go out of my way to watch. Most other birds round here hide away but not the swallows. They are breathtaking to watch.
Unfortunately a movie about swifts will not be forthcoming because they're virtually impossible to film. I know next to nothing about them, just these bits of info: they look like flying cigars, they make clicking sounds as they fly, and many of them roost in chimneys at night--thus the name Chimney Swifts. Now I've exhausted my store of knowledge about them.
