Tag Archives: cold weather

What Do Swallows Eat on a Cold Windy Day?

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Today was a cold blustery day, on the heels of some severe weekend storms.  I went down to check on our prairie (five inches of rain, strong winds, and a tornado a few miles away) and was glad to see everything looked wet but ok – including the cattle.

As I walked through the prairie, I noticed some barn swallows flying and hovering just above the surface of the wetland/pond.  Since the temperature was in the low 40’s and the winds were howling above 30 mph, I didn’t think there was any chance there were flying insects for them to catch and eat, so I wondered what they were up to.  As I watched the swallows, I realized they weren’t just wasting energy, but instead appeared to be feeding by picking insects (I assume) off the surface of the water.  It was lightly raining and I’d left my camera in the truck, so I didn’t take any pictures, but I’d never seen nor heard of such behavior before.

About a half hour later, I had just left the prairie and was starting home when I saw a big mixed flock of cliff and barn swallows behaving very similarly in a flooded wetland about a mile from our prairie.  The rain had stopped by this time, so I pulled over and got a few mediocre photographs.

Cliff swallows feeding (apparently) on floating insects during a cold blustery spring day.

Swallows resting and flying over a wetland on a cold blustery spring day.

 

A wider shot, showing one swallow in the top right corner that might be feeding.

A wider shot, showing one swallow in the top right corner that I think was feeding.

When I got back to town, I did a little quick research and found that this kind of feeding behavior has been seen before – it was just new to me.  However, I also remembered a long cold period in May back in 1996, during which scientists documented mass deaths of swallows from starvation.  At the time, I remember being told that the birds starved because of a lack of flying insects to eat during the cold spell.  I wonder why those swallows died but the ones I saw today (two different species a mile apart) appeared to be finding food…?  I also wonder if they were catching enough food to cover the energy costs of doing so?

It’s a good day when I can learn something new AND come up with questions I can’t answer.  Anyone out there have answers for me?

 

 

 

Photo of the Week – December 13, 2013

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Monday morning was cold here.  If I remember correctly, it was about 4 degrees below zero when I decided to go for a walk with my camera.  (Because, hey, what else would you do on a morning like that?)

There wasn’t much wind, so it honestly didn’t feel all that bad, especially since I was dressed for it.  However, my camera was sure cold.  It worked fine, but I had to keep an extra battery in my pocket (so it would stay warm) because batteries don’t last long at very low temperatures.  The biggest issue, though, was that the viewfinder on the camera kept frosting over from my breath.  Those of you who think photography is easy haven’t tried holding your breath every time you put the camera up close to your face…

As the sun came up, the prairie was populated with seedheads wearing little snow caps.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I couldn’t seem to find a single one that photographed well.  So, I ended up with this photo of milkweed seeds, in which you can’t even really tell it was snowy.

But trust me, it was cold.

Common milkweed seeds on a frigid, snowy day. The Leadership Center Prairie, Aurora, Nebraska.

Common milkweed seeds on a frigid, snowy day. The Leadership Center Prairie, Aurora, Nebraska.

Oh, and by the way – I took several versions of this photo and struggled to decide which I liked best.  You might ask, “Chris, why don’t you just put a couple versions up and ask us which we like better?”   Sure, that’d work great.  I tried that yesterday with the bison photos.  Twenty four hours later, well over 100 people voted, some contacting me outside of the blog, and the vote was almost exactly evenly split.  A number of you tried to have it both ways, so your “vote” didn’t really help.  The remainder of you did, at least, express an opinion, but in the end, there was no consensus.

I suppose I could take my cue from the United States government, and decide that since the readership is polarized I should just shut down the blog for a while.  However, as an example to my country, I’ll take the high road and compromise.  Both photos will be included in next week’s “best photos of 2013” feature.  You have only yourselves to blame, though, when you look at through that photo montage and think to yourself, “Gee, this is nice, but it seems like there’s one too many images in it…”

(Seriously, though, thanks for voting.  Both images were obviously popular.  Some people felt very strongly one way or the other.  Others liked them about equally.  It was fun to read the reasons people chose one over the other.  While there were some very thoughtful responses, my favorite was definitely the one from Mary, who chose photo B  because the bison reminded her of her old uncle!  As of the time I’m writing this, the vote count is 53 votes for A and 50 for B…)