Rewilding My Lot

After several days of work building their nest, our Barn Swallow porch lodgers settled into a routine where the female was spending most of her time on the nest. So of course I was suspicious that there were eggs.

Being a curious person, I invested in a mirror on a telescoping handle in order to peer into the nest during times when the adults were away. Sure enough, there were four little eggs!

Seeing into the nest with the mirror is easily and quickly done, but getting a good photograph at the same time is a different matter. I found it difficult to focus my phone camera on the correct part of the image, and the lighting of course was awkward. This was about the best I could do, and most of my attempts had to be discarded.

So I decided that occasionally I could climb up a ladder to take photos if there was something I particularly wanted to document, doing the rest of the observations in real time with the mirror. This also gave me a chance to see more of the nest structure, which appears to be mud outside, then twigs or grasses, then feathers (the best photo is the first one in this post).