Last week, I took an break from work and headed down to the South Platte River. I heard that there were lots of egrets along the water’s edge after sunrise. I only got to see 2 or 3 egrets. After walking along the river, I sat down on some rocks on the river bank. Soon after, I noticed these two Barn-Swallows on a rock, some 15-feet away!

What good fortune! I sat and observed two Barn-Swallow parents and their juvenile offspring for a half-hour or so. I like the expression of this swallow sitting by the water’s edge as it looked at me.

The two juvenile birds were do some flight-training and probably taking a break. In this image, one juvenile is flapping it’s wing.

The one parent swallow was taking turns looking after the juveniles while the other parent was in-flight along the river.

Another image…

In this image, the parent was looking up above me. Maybe keeping a eye or two on foot and bike traffic along the trail. Or maybe watching for predators in the sky?

It was fun to observe these cool Barn-Swallows. Later, while heading back to the truck, I saw an egret and some cormorants. Maybe another time?