(August 24th) I took an early morning trip to Gallup Park to see how it had changed in the couple of months since I had last been there. Summer is definitely almost over. Most of the birds are on their second or third brood and these offspring are almost already grown. I saw a Barn Swallow who had just left the nest. It didn't make it very far and was resting in an oak. It squawked constantly to its parents to beg them for food. The parents were feeding this full-sized 'kid' non-stop. It was great fun to watch and try and get some action shots. I tried for a slower shutter speed to capture some of the frenzy of the activity.
Introduced species can be a big environmental problem. Mute Swans were introduced from Europe a while back and have spread through some of the Northeast and Great Lakes region. The tend to be fairly aggressive birds, driving many other waterfowl away. But I have to admit, they are pretty birds. I tried to capture some of the soft intimacy of this swan that was preening in front of me. I used the opportunity to get some good practice at fill flash on a white subject - the white can reflect too much of the flash light if you're not careful.
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