{"id":13285,"date":"2013-03-13T03:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T09:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=13285"},"modified":"2013-03-13T06:41:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T12:41:43","slug":"barn-swallow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/13\/barn-swallow\/","title":{"rendered":"Barn Swallow"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve always had a “thing” for Barn Swallows.\u00a0 I’m sure it goes back to my childhood on the family farm in Montana where they nested in huge numbers on and in all of the many\u00a0old barns, granaries and outbuildings.\u00a0 As a kid I\u00a0spent many hours watching\u00a0their graceful flight with their long forked tail and pointed wings being quite distinctive.<\/p>\n

Another thing (besides the fond memories) that I’m indebted to them for is that the species indirectly led to the beginning of the conservation movement in the United\u00a0States.\u00a0 The destruction of Barn Swallows for the millinery trade (those long tail feathers were apparently considered very attractive on the hat of a lady)\u00a0during the 1800’s\u00a0led to George Bird Grinnell’s article in Forest and Stream<\/em> in 1886 that prompted the\u00a0founding of the first Audubon Society.\u00a0 Hooray for Barn Swallows !<\/p>\n

I think the way they’ve adapted to man is fascinating.\u00a0 They’re now the most abundant and widely distributed swallow in the world\u00a0and originally they nested almost exclusively in caves but with the advent of human structures that has changed dramatically.\u00a0 They have almost completely converted to nesting in or on man-made structures like bridges, culverts and the eaves of buildings.\u00a0 In fact, in modern times any Barn Swallows found nesting on natural sites create quite a stir among birders and are often reported with much interest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"barn<\/a><\/p>\n

1\/640, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But I must admit that I also enjoy them in natural settings.\u00a0 I found this bird at Bear River MBR where it and its buddies were nesting under a small bridge but they’d often land on the nearby reeds.\u00a0 I like the pose,\u00a0the arc of the looping perch and the fact that the background is\u00a0out of focus enough to isolate the\u00a0bird pretty well – something that hasn’t been easy for me with these birds in the reeds.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Note: Because of other commitments I may not be able to respond much\u00a0to comments for a\u00a0couple of\u00a0days.\u00a0 I’ll be seeing them on my phone but I’m “all thumbs” on that darn thing and I really can’t type on it.\u00a0 I do have a couple of posts scheduled\u00a0during that time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always had a “thing” for Barn Swallows.\u00a0 I’m sure it goes back to my childhood on the family farm in Montana where they nested in huge numbers on and in all of the many\u00a0old barns, granaries and outbuildings.\u00a0 As a kid I\u00a0spent many hours watching\u00a0their graceful flight with their long forked tail and pointed wings being quite distinctive. Another thing (besides the fond memories) that I’m indebted to them for is that the species indirectly led to the beginning of the conservation movement in the United\u00a0States.\u00a0 The destruction of Barn Swallows for the millinery trade (those long tail feathers were apparently considered very attractive on the hat of a lady)\u00a0during the 1800’s\u00a0led to George Bird Grinnell’s article in Forest and Stream in 1886 that prompted the\u00a0founding of the first Audubon Society.\u00a0 Hooray for Barn Swallows ! I think the way they’ve adapted to man is fascinating.\u00a0 They’re now the most abundant and widely distributed swallow in the world\u00a0and originally they nested almost exclusively in caves but with the advent of human structures that has changed dramatically.\u00a0 They have almost completely converted to nesting in or on man-made structures like bridges, culverts and the eaves of buildings.\u00a0 In fact, in modern times any Barn Swallows found nesting on natural sites create quite a stir among birders and are often reported with much interest.   1\/640, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light But I must admit that I also enjoy them in natural settings.\u00a0 I found this bird at Bear River MBR where…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1321,338,334],"tags":[1327,431,49,1323,1326,1325,1322,1324,230],"class_list":["post-13285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barn-swallows","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","tag-audubon-society","tag-barn-swallow","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-conservation-movement","tag-forest-and-stream","tag-george-bird-grinnell","tag-hirudinea-rustica","tag-millinery-trade","tag-nesting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-3sh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}