drama

 The swallows are back. Their soaring and powerful aerial acrobatics are uplifting, figuratively and literally.

 But they are late. They are late to the party here. Every year they covet the birdhouse in the back, but that spot was taken weeks ago by the bluebirds.

 

Every year the swallows protest the unfairness of it all. They start their mornings by dive bombing the nest for about an hour. They sit on the barbed wire fence and gaze longingly at the occupied birdhouse. I've even seen them sit atop said birdhouse while the female bluebird is inside sitting on her nest. In years past, the swallows have kept this up for a couple of weeks, but the bluebirds will not budge. Eventually the swallows give up and move on. This is what passes for drama here on the other side of the creek.

P.S. the photos above were not taken by me. I used them years ago on this blog. They probably came from flickr, but at this point I'm not sure whom to attribute them to.