Charming domestic scene from last Saturday morning: a pair of Tree Swallows and a plastic purple martin on the purple martin house in our back field past the pond.

We have had a purple martin house out there for years (well, we take it down in the winter) and no purple martin has ever been seen by us within the bounds of our 14 acres.

Anyway we have grown quite accustomed to our charming tree swallows. They don’t care if we stand there and stare up at them. I guess they know how fast they can fly.

The antenna perches are precious, aren’t they.

The only negative thing about the situation is that tree swallows don’t nest colonially. So the other 7 rooms in the martin apartment house are unoccupied. Except sometimes there are wasps by the end of the season.

Tree swallows eat a lot of insects… but not when they are mellowing out on the roof, watching the sunrise.

Perched.

“Oh please, I’m so shy!”