A couple of days ago we had a nice, warm, sunny day, so instead of doing yard work all day we decided to go kayaking in the lake behind my house.

The wind was calm, so it was a nice easy paddle. We went in the direction that goes under a bridge. I wanted to go that way, because anytime I drive over that bridge lately, I’ve seen birds flying out from underneath. I thought that there would be barn swallows, but I was hoping for other swallow species nesting under the bridge too.

When we got close to the bridge we started to see the swallow. I saw the Barn Swallow, you can identify them from their long fork tails.

With the Barn Swallows I spotted other Swallows that did not have fork tails. After paddling directly under the bridge I was able to see the Cliff Swallows. They had built nests under the bridge but in a different area away from the Barn Swallows’ nests.

Here is a photo of the Cliff Swallows’ nests, there is a bird inside the nest on the right, but unfortunately the photo was taken with my phone from down below in the water…

I continued up the lake until it became too rocky to continue on. At the end, I heard several different birds singing in the trees on the both sides of the water. I was able to spot the Acadian Flycatcher flying out over the water, catching insects and flying back to low branches on the shore.

It ended up being a nice escape from the madness of 2020… 

Remember to stay healthy and stay safe!