Barn Swallows
Late this morning, under a sunny blue sky, two Barn Swallows sailed and swooped and dipped over a big grassy yard in our neighborhood – the first ones I’ve seen this season. I was walking near the house with the large porch where they usually nest each year, and wondering if they were back yet, when I heard a dry twittering, and there they were, right above me.
With steel-blue back, red-orange breast and long forked tail, they are striking in appearance, but the main reason I’m always happy to see them again is that their sweeping, fast, exuberant flight is so much fun just to stand and watch. I wonder if a Barn Swallow’s flight might be the equivalent of a Wood Thrush’s song – its most eloquent expression of being.