And It's Back

- the masked woodswallow that is. This shows one of these handsome fellows. Not my photo unfortunately but I was lucky enough to find this image by Jim Bendon online and available under a Creative Commons licence. I particularly like this image because it shows the sleek body shape and large wing span of these elegant birds.

Image by Jim Bendon - Flickr Woodswallows7
CC BY-SA 2.0









We don't see masked woodswallows around here very much but every year around this time I catch occasional glimpses of them. Whether there's a breeding pair or two that likes the area and returns annually or they're just nomadic wanderers I don't know but the arrival marks the point where we're now past the coldest part of winter and are heading towards spring and Djilba, the Noongar season of first spring and season of conception which lasts from August through September.

Most of the sites I looked at say masked woodswallows fly in large flocks but that's certainly not the case around here. I have only ever seen them singly but as one site mentioned that some pairs come to the Swan River region to nest I assume that's the case with those I've seen.