Mike in the Wild

They're back.  It was three years ago when I first observed cliff swallows swooping and nesting along the canal that divides my Phoenix neighborhood into two halves.  And it was ever since that I wondered whether they'd ever return.  But they didn't, at least not to their expected nesting spots, until now.   While many migratory birds spend the winter in the cool and mild weather of Arizona's deserts, those same birds travel north for their summer breeding season.  It's quite normal to see white-crowned sparrows and green-winged teals in the area in January but by the summer they escape the sweltering heat to breed as far north as Canada. But cliff swallows are not limited to just the North America continent in their own migrations.  They spend our winters in South America, as far south as Argentina, and travel to our northern hemisphere, including Arizona, for a summer breeding season.   While their nesting habitat used to be limited to ...

My morning runs usually start just after dawn, when the air is cool and the birds are stirring.  For several months I've enjoyed identifying flycatchers, herons, marsh ducks and hawks while I jog through my Phoenix neighborhood's golf courses and along its man-made lakes and canals.  I've even stopped listening to my iPod on these outings, preferring the  cacophony of bird songs instead.   While I've regularly seen northern rough-winged swallows, I just discovered a colony of their more colorful cousins - cliff swallows - on my route. I made a point to return to the their nesting site on a subsequent morning, camera in tow,  when the sun was low enough to provide the best direct light under the bridge they now call home.  It turns out that they are deep and snug enough under an overhang to prevent light from ever shining directly on their mud dwellings.  But no problem, they picked a location that is high, protected from above and most important - ea...