The Orkney Image Library
Help us get organised! If we haven't correctly identified which area this picture is best listed under, please select it below and click Done!
Swallows found in one of the old wartime sheds at Rinnigal on Hoy August 2009
Picture added on 30 May 2012 at 21:57
Attractive pictures Betty. Juvenile Barn Swallows, with colours more muted than adults' and tail-streamers not yet developed. I've long been intrigued by swallows' readiness to raise their young in the presence of humans. A pair bred regularly in a small postroom I used to visit daily, along with scores of other people, to pick up my private mail. A transom window was left partly open for them and they would build, incubate and feed young within a metre of the mail-collectors' heads. Of course, no man's hand was against them, and they must have known that. (Some people, who'd never seen Swallows up close before, thought they were 'Bluebirds' - as in 'Bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover' presumably.) The Swallows raised more than one brood there in a good year.
Added by Ian Hourston on 30 May 2012
great photos Betty, love the swallows
Added by Jessie Mowat on 31 May 2012
Another cracking photo - I think a visit to Hoy is in order soon,just to see the bird life.
Added by Tina Meldrum on 02 June 2012
Charming photos Betty
Added by Alan on 02 June 2012
Brill photos granny! You have an amazing eye. I await more
Kirsten
<< back
Kirsten
Added by Kirsten Kirkpatrick on 07 June 2012
Hoy and Walls
