Their aerial performances are special
King, you've never seen an aerial performance until you cut a hay field and are literally swarmed with purple martins and barn swallows. They hear the equipment running and they know it stirs up the bugs hiding in the fields. Half the time I wind up screwing up my wind rows because I'm distracted by the these two species that are simply incredible flyers. At times I'm surrounded by several dozen birds. A few them come close enough on their pass that I could have reached out and grabbed them if I wanted to.
Ok. Reminds me of a time I and a close friend were swimming out past the breakers on a local beach on a warm September day. A flock (swarm?) of pelicans were diving all around us for fish. They would circle 10 to 30 or so feet over us then suddenly dive and plunge under water. There were probably 25 of them.
We never could see the fish around us but it must have been a bunch of sardines or anchovies or some other bait fish. It was an amazing experience. Jake
