They’re back! Violet Green Swallows

Swooping, deking and diving – fluttering around each other and exhibiting all the aerial acrobatics that make me long to fly. Violet-green Swallows: a very descriptive name for a beautiful bird.  They are back home.

the first violet-green that I saw last year

I  put up six swallow boxes on a very large home in Blewett about ten years ago.  The houses were instantly occupied by violet-green swallows – and they all produced young. Those houses were still occupied last year. I hope that the bird houses I tacked up here are as successful, but the swallows  seem to prefer nesting in the insulation under the roof.  The photos I have put up here are of the first violet-green that I saw in Nelson last year and of a female at the nest.  That nest was also built in insulation under the roof of an old shed.

first violet-green that I saw last year

just got home

female violet-green swallow at the nest

I spent time this morning watching two pairs of violet-greens  “dance in the air” above my head.  Imagine the freedom of a swallow.  What would it be like to be that agile and graceful – so at home in the air?  These birds are one of the reasons I feel such joy at the return of spring.

all writing and photos copyright Joanne Siderius 2013.