We saw the first cliff swallows of the season last Sunday morning, dancing over the urban river. They’re one of the first birds I really took notice of when I started exploring this area two decades ago, because they are such impressive Anthropocene adapters. They build their elaborate dwellings on the sides of the bridges, perfect pustules of mud spackled onto the steel trusses, usually in huge colonies. Each of their little huts has a tubular entrance on the outside, and when you find the colony, usually on the morning side of the bridge, you can’t believe how busy they stay, coming and going in and out with manic energy to feed their young.
Cozy catastrophes
Cozy catastrophes
Cozy catastrophes
We saw the first cliff swallows of the season last Sunday morning, dancing over the urban river. They’re one of the first birds I really took notice of when I started exploring this area two decades ago, because they are such impressive Anthropocene adapters. They build their elaborate dwellings on the sides of the bridges, perfect pustules of mud spackled onto the steel trusses, usually in huge colonies. Each of their little huts has a tubular entrance on the outside, and when you find the colony, usually on the morning side of the bridge, you can’t believe how busy they stay, coming and going in and out with manic energy to feed their young.