Posts Tagged ‘swallow’

Our Australian neighbours

Monday, October 1st, 2012

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One of the first things that we noticed when we moved to our place was the little cup shaped nest on top of the security lights be the front door.  It turned out to be the home of a pair of Welcome swallows, who delight us with their arrivals and departures, swooping and diving over our frustrated cats as we watch and laugh from our kitchen sink.

Over the last month, we have seen the pair build up the nest and line it with soft grass and feathers and, in the last week, an increase in activity heralded the arrival of chicks.  Today, I set up my SLR and telephoto lens on a tripod to capture a few shots of the parents feeding the chicks.

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The Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It is a species native to Australia and nearby islands, and self-introduced into New Zealand in the middle of the twentieth century. It is very similar to the Pacific Swallow with which it is often considered conspecific. This species breeds in southern and eastern Australia in a variety of habitats, mostly in open areas, man made clearings or urban environments, but not desert or dense forest. Eastern populations are largely migratory, wintering in northern Australia. Western birds and those in New Zealand are mainly sedentary. via wikipedia