Summer Residents (and summer not)

Started working again on the new house. And found ourselves with squatters in the framing. A lovely family of barn swallows was enjoying the relative safety of the unfinished shell. Our initial activity startled them, but once we settled into a pattern of sharing space, the ruffled feathers were soothed. We would sit in the late day and watch mom and dad flying in to feed the ravenous crew who had taken up residence in the bathroom.

On Sunday when I took a friend in to view the new stairs, we were thrilled to find that the babies had fledged. Perched throughout the downstairs, on beams, headers, and the gas fridge were the swallows from the nest. As we watched the through the door, they swooped from fridge to beam to table saw to window sill. Short commuter flights before they spread their wings in preparation for the longer international Southern flight after a summer in Maine.

When I came back later in the day, the house was quiet. Perched outside on the slender branch of the hackmatack were two swallows who eventually flew off in pursuit of an evening meal of mosquitoes and black flies.

We've had a pair that nested for a couple years outside the window on the small cabin, but they did not return this year to rebuild the nest. So, I was happy to have another pair of these sweet summer visitors sharing our home in Happytown.

For all the business of life, this was the third time in as many years that I have been fortunate to witness the exodus from the nest and the first flittering of young birds. Last year, it was a family of blue jays. The year before a colony of chickadees. I'm sure if I were more intentionally observant, I would be witness to more. But the miracles in the moments, happened upon as I was doing other things, is a gift to be savored.