Calamity James: The Not-So-Welcome Swallow

There is a dam near the house that has a lot of feathered traffic, it's an ideal spot to sit and watch the comings and goings. It also makes me feel like Indiana Jones as I army crawl up the side of the dam wall and slowly peek over the top for the first time to see who or what is wadding/swimming/flying/stalking/eating/sleeping in and around the edge of the water. Some times it is a relatively unusual Spoonbill or the more common Mudlark. Today I watched a Welcome Swallow feeding, before being rudely interrupted. But before I get into that a bit more on the Welcome Swallow.

These fellas head North to the Pilbara and upper Goldfields for the Winter, then at the start of Spring head back South-West. Their name is a reference to people in the South welcoming the start of Spring and the swallows that return with it. They are around most of Australia except for the Territory and central WA. They are small (about 15cm long) and lightening fast, getting an action shot involves pointing my camera upwards and hoping for the best. They know that I'm too slow to pose any sort of threat when they're in the air and so do a couple of close swoops to get a good look at me and, I think, to show off as well. Here's a bit more of interesting info (for example- they have to eat every 2 minutes!).

Anyway on to the incident that inspired the title of this post. I was photographing one Swallow sitting around on an old power pole when his mate decided he wanted to sit there. It was like watching siblings fighting over a toy.

The Calm Before the Storm