Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
These little beauties arrive here at the farm every spring and build nests inside the barn, we love them as they eat many flies!
Phoebe
I think it is fair to say our most entertaining flycatcher is the eastern phoebe. It is the easiest of the flycatchers to identify because of its fondness for human structures, including our barn. From the nest it built in Limerick’s stall, we have watched one female in particular fly to and fro through several summer months beginning in May. The female phoebe constructs the nest from mud, moss, and leaves mixed with grass stems and possibly animal hair. This nest adheres to the barn beams in the barn. Once the eggs hatched, you can hear the insistent chirping complaints of the chicks while their busy mother tried to satisfy the chicks’ appetite for insects. The adult could often be seen sitting on a low tree branch, a few yards away from the porch, flicking its tail up and down.
Barn Swallow Chicks
Phoebe
I couldn’t figure this one out, a friend helped ID it and although it’s brown, it is a Phoebe. This one was perched on a bobbing log at Epping bridge.
Fun fact: the Eastern Phoebe was the first bird to be banded by John Audubon in 1804, at the time a silver thread was used so he would know when the bird returned each spring.
Purple Martins
This was a very successful Martin house with more than 50 in the colony, they actually opened the house at night and counted the sleeping birds, done by the Audibon Bird Society volunteers.
urple Martins
Simply beautiful
Barn Swallows
Every year they return to raise several broods of chicks, we always wonder how they manage not to fall out of the nest… the cats wonder too.
Tree Swallows
The Tree Swallows are amazing, they have beautiful blue feathers and fly like stunt pilots. Trying to get a photo of their antics is next to impossible. when the young ones fledge the nest they get a lot of encouragement from their parents and fed lots of bugs, they even get fed in flight. We were lucky enough to be canoeing the Beaver River on fledgling day, which we could figure out which day it is every year, a wonderful day on the river.
Busy cliff entrance/exit
