Branching aside

Magpies were from the beginning my main interest but, curiously enough, the first birds to enter my computer (so to say) were swallows, in August 2005. You can well imagine how green I was when I tell you that my first thought was that they were sparrows, and so I told in public. They sure made rather queer sparrows but I was (and still am, though less)so ignorant that didn't think of searching what they really were till more than two years later.

Swallows are quite common around here from early Spring to late Summer and they have the habit of perching on wires and clothes ropes to dress up their feathers and sing their little hearts out... in the early morning. Of course, sparrows are more daring, but swallows seem to have not much more fear provided there is some air between you and them. Consequently, it's relatively easy to photograph them during their morning toilet and concerts.

Unfortunately, they seem to be afraid of big, clumsy, shiny black artefacts like my Zenits, so once I returned to my sister her little digi, I couldn't shot swallows anymore. But I keep trying, and one day...