Cavity Nester Nests, Eggs and Young Photos and Bios:
Violet-green Swallow (VGSW) nest. Photo by Zell Lundberg of Coaldale, CO. Pretty typical construction for this area. Most seem to be shallow and scratchy looking, adorned by glorious feathers (down and Band-tailed Pigeon.) This one has a Steller Jay's feather in left front, more gray feathers, and Band-tailed Pigeon feathers in the back. Includes some strips of juniper bark which are common in all nests in this area of Coaldale, CO.
Much sloppier than Tree Swallow nests I see in CT.
Description: Straws, dry grasses, lined with abundance of feathers. White oval eggs, no markings. (Indistinguishable from Tree Swallow.)
Photo by Zell Lundberg. Lots of down in this one.
A feathery smile on an adult VGSW. Photo by Zell Lundberg. Reminds me of the Mary Poppins song (A Spoonful of Sugar): "A robin feathering his nest
has very little time to rest
while gathering his bits of twine and twig." And this one actually DID use a twig!
The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo.
-Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist and educator. Reflection #54, Aphorisms and Reflections, selected by Henrietta A. Huxley, Macmillan, 1907.
