Many of us are bird watchers. Some casual, some hard-core. Me, I’m casual but I do enjoy Close Encounters of the Avian Kind.

My son, Timothy, took this photo of baby barn swallows on the cusp of fledging (they were gone next day). Momma built her nest in a hollow of an upright dock-holding-log on Lake Coeur d’Alene.  Barn swallows, with their blue and white coloration, and forked tail, are widely recognized all over the U.S. Might say they’re everybody’s most-recognizable bird. Did you know they can swallow 60 insects per hour? Or a whopping 850 million in one day??

Don’t you think our ancestors were bird watchers too? I’ve read diaries where New England,  Atlantic seacoast transplants and immigrants from forested countries to the mid-western prairies missed their birds (among many other things). There were none-to-few trees and hence, no birds. Another culture shock for sure.