Nature’s Dive Bomber – the Barn Swallow
I’ve been watching, and attempting to record, the defensive behavior of the common Barn Swallow. When they feel one of the nests is in danger, all of the swallows take to the air and dive and swoop and make noise. The goal is to confuse the predator and then to scare it away with "attacks" consisting of fast fly bys with screeches at the moment when the bird is closest to the predator.
The video captures a few of these dives and starting at 00:55s you can see a pass in slow motion. This is followed by another pass in slow motion and then still frames.
(note the bird song as it is slowed down)
A true Audubon moment.
It’s nice to see that you have some time to relax a little now that you’re moved in to the new house. It’s gotta beat the frazzle frenzy of the last few months.
it’s still crazy but Zen needs to go out to get exercise and do her business and we get dive bombed every time – it took a few tries to capture any acceptable video.
You need to add 633 Squaddron music.
I’ve not seen 633 Squadron – I’ll track it down and watch !
Amazing shots. I especially enjoyed the slow motion video and audio. Wow – they come in FAST!
Thanks R – my video is sophomoric compared to your recent photography. To steal Ed’s comment, you captured a “true Audubon moment”.
My next attempt is to pull out the dSLR and go “full manual” in hopes of freezing the moment of “near impact”.