I have become absolutely fascinated with the Swallows here in South Africa, all the way from Europe of course and many thousands of miles away from there. Barn Swallows "winter" in Africa as far as Cape Town and then fly north to breed in Europe. Quite why evolution has decided that this is a good strategy for these birds is a mystery. It is a mammoth migration and yet the local White throated Swallows that are almost identical in every way, breed here quite successfully, so why do Barn Swallows undertake such an exhausting migration twice in every 12 months? I have been seeing lots of Barn Swallows almost everywhere I look but particularly by the coast where they are flying low of the beaches and feeding on the small insects that abound on beaches, the insects attracted by decaying kelp. I thought at first that these swallows were building up reserves ready for their migration north which should surely take place soon?  Then I realised that I have not seen one single adult swallow in full colour, all the birds that I have seen are in juvenile colour or half way between the adult and juvenile plumage stage. It occurred to me that these birds are not going to migrate and will stay here for the South African winter (the UK and Europe summer). Perhaps, and probably, all the adult swallows have already moved north?  I would really appreciate any comment about this as it is a fascinating subject.

In flight, the birds are really hard to photograph but I spent an hour or two yesterday while my wife sunbathed, trying to achieve the pinnacle of bird photography, that is……..swifts and swallows in flight.   I had my first real success of that yesterday.  The light was incredibly bright and the reflections from the sand were hard to deal with as well, but the photos, as well as freezing the wings in flight, also show how bright it was.