Day 16.219: Swallows at Parker River

On a bit of a whim Exile #2 and I decided on a quick drive back into Massachusetts to visit Parker River National Wildlife Refuge yesterday afternoon. As we arrived we saw a lot of swallows but they were in an area where we couldn't really stop. We drove on and stopped by a wetland area to look at the other birds. After a few minutes, the swallows descended - literally. Here are a few still photos:

Tree swallows - maybe 200 in this one corner of the sky

Close-up of a few of them

They briefly seemed to want to stop in this tree, but then moved on again (at least most of them)

Another watcher suggested "thousands", there were undoubtedly many hundreds.

Here is the video - but I strongly recommend clicking through on this link to view in HD and a larger picture.



It was a quite astonishing experience.

I'll save the rest of the pictures from our visit for another day.