Saturday, April 21, 2012

River Ferry Tree Swallows for Camera Critters




Yesterday we had gone birding along the Saint John River at Sheffield and Maugerville looking for waterfowl and then went on to Jemseg.  To return home we decided to take the Lower Gagetown River Ferry at Jemseg and cross the Saint John river there.River Ferries are part of our New Brunswick highway system.  Earlier this week I had read that the Tree Swallows had returned to the Gagetown Ferry and I wanted to check that out also.  While waiting for the ferry to arrive from its
 crossing  from the Gagetown side of the river we saw two Tree Swallows waiting also on the overhead wires above us.As the ferry docked we thought we would be the first ones to board, but we were wrong. The Tree Swallows immediately flew aboard the ferry as soon as it had docked!You can see one swallow on top of the post near the New Brunswick flag flying on the ferry.Each year for the past several  Tree Swallows have successfully nested on this Lower Gagetown ferry.  We saw their nesting box there yesterday  .at the bottom of the picture above you can see one of the tree swallows perched in front of the bird houseraboard the ferry.  We have seen Tree Swallows nesting here other years while the ferry continuously crossed the river daily. The presence of the Tree Swallows aboard the ferry yesterday signify that they have  chosen this as their nesting site again this year and they are monitoring their chosen location.  As the ferry continued its crossing the Tree Swallows stayed aboard the  entire ferry crossing.This picturesque River Lighthouse was the beautiful view awaiting us as the river ferry docked on the Lower Gagetown side of the Saint John river crossing from Jemseg..  We had a lovely day checking out these river ferry Tree Swallows and will return another day when they are nesting inside their moveable home during their nesting season.  "Bon Voyage little adventurous swallows" Have a wonderful sailing  and nesting season!!!!

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10 comments:

Helen said...

Well that is downright sweet, A moving home. Thanks for sharing.

Carletta said...

They do have an advantage on being the first ones on. :)
How interesting that they would want to nest so close to such a flurry of activity. Nice too that they are comfortable to repeat the process.
Lovely shots!

Hootin Anni said...

How awesome...those are some terrific shots, I love birding and birds!!!

My post today...link: BUDWEISER CLYDESDALES

Brian King said...

haha! That's funny how they crossed on the ferry!

DeniseinVA said...

I enjoyed this lovely post with all your photos. Thanks Ann!

DeVona said...

What a neat, unusual story!

Maude Lynn said...

What a pretty bird!

Roan said...

Cool!

Mary said...

wow...their very own house boat :-) I'm glad you got to see them and get photos.

Margaret Manring said...

I had never imagined birds nesting on a moving boat.
Thanks for this story and for excellent photos. I love the sound of tree swallows' voices. We used to have them out back.