That is very cool! This is not exactly the same, but I was photographing a Tree Swallow at Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area on Long Island last Tuesday with a 500 mm PF lens (think, short and light for a 500mm) on a Nikon D850 with a very loud shutter. I suddenly realized that the swallow was singing in response to the shutter. The more I pressed it, the more the bird sang. I tried a varied pattern to test it. When I finally stopped, the bird waited a second and then flew off. I had never experienced that before, either. I have watched penguins play in Antarctica. Penguins climb up on things and jump off them just for fun. They’ll even do it with a buddy.
Ardith Bondi NYC www.ardithbondi.com Sent from my iPhone > On Jun 5, 2021, at 10:04 PM, Joseph Wallace <joew...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > This is more about bird behavior than rarity, so apologies if it's o/t, but I > watched a swallow engage in extraordinary (to me) behavior at Croton Point > Park in Westchester today. It started when I spotted something white drifting > slowly towards the ground: a large, downy feather. Just as I focused on it, a > Barn Swallow snatched it out of the air with its beak. I expected the bird to > head off to its nest, but instead it dropped the feather...and then circled > and snatched it out of the air again. > > For the next few minutes, I watched the swallow repeatedly release the > feather, do wide loops around it--sometimes feinting in its direction--and > then pluck it out of the air. Twice it let the feather land on the grass, > retrieving it once while on the wing and once by landing beside it. Finally > the swallow did head off, I imagine to line its nest at last. > > I'd never seen swallows engage in play, but I can't see how this was anything > else. Has anyone else here ever witnessed something like this? Thanks--Joe > Wallace > -- > NYSbirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > ABA > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
