Bird Watching: Appallingly bad pix volume 21, 1 by Chillybean

Chillybean wrote:
I wanted to put these in the Daily pictures thread, but a couple do not belong there. I think the first and last of this set are fine, but the middles are pretty poor.

A little background... We had Barn Swallows nesting on our front porch. They gave us a fine view with their chosen location. We could look up from inside the house. There were five babies. When they started moving around, I was getting concerned they would fall out, so put a couple pillows under the nest. Well, a couple Thursdays ago, two fell out of the nest. I get them back in. Next day, starting in the late morning, one kept falling out. I lost count how many times the dear fell. It's fall did seem to be softened by the pillows.

Well, what to do? My husband, being a smart fellow, put together a platform he was going to clamp to the ladder, but felt the distance was still too far, so he put it on a post and it had a good sized base to hopefully withstand any winds. He took the pillows away.

Not too long after this, that one fell onto the platform. We are just assuming it was the same one over and over. One of the parents came by and it looked like it fed it; we could not see for sure. Before we went to bed, the little one was one the porch floor. !!! Papa put it into the platform, but said it didn't look very well. I wanted to call someone right away, but he thought it best to wait until morning. It died in that time. That was so hard after all we did to try and keep it safe and healthy. Four did leave the nest on day 18, but they didn't hang around. We assume they went to where ever other Barn Swallows are hanging out.

Oh, I didn't mean to go into a long story, but I wanted to explain the contraption this little one was on. S/he was sitting inside and while I was taking pictures, it decided it wanted to perch on the ledge. I about had a heart-attack thinking it was going to fall over. As you see in the last picture, the bird was fine. This one seemed to enjoy the platform. The others preferred the nest and the parents fed this one as often as the others.

I don't think I posted a link here to my Barn Swallow album, but this shows much of their time here.
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