The barn swallows and cliff swallows are returning to the bridges of the Oostanaula. They are busy building their mud homes and mud apartments under the bridges. Soon the Mama swallows will be attacking me on the riverwalk for coming too near their babies. It's fun to watch these flying insect eaters (Anything that eats mosquitoes is a friend of mine!) swooping up and down the levee, so low they seem to brush the grass, never lighting except at the nests. A couple of years ago I wrote a pantoum about the busy little guys.
The Cliff Swallow
He dips and dives and soars and swings
from bank to bank and bridge to stream.
He stops to dip his muddy beak
and sculpt from mud his cozy home.
From bank to bank and bridge to stream
he snaps his food and dips again,
and sculpts from mud his cozy home
up high and sheer on concrete face.
He snaps up food and dips again.
A hundred hundred times or more
up high and sheer on concrete face,
he dabs the mud and flies again.
A hundred hundred times or more
he stops to dip his muddy beak,
and dabs the mud and flies again,
to dip and dive and soar and swing.by Terrell Shaw
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