As most of us, I too had to change my plans for this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The biggest change for me was that I had to postpone my film photography plans because these days it’s hard to get the films developed in the area. Fortunately, we are still not on lockdown so I can go to the local state parks such as the West Rock Ridge State Park (map) where there are not many people, especially in the mornings. I’ve been planning to photograph tree swallows and bluebirds in this park for weeks, now I just have to shoot them with my digital camera. This is my first attempt to photograph the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) and the Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis). Adult tree swallows have beautiful iridescent blue-green plumage.

They nest in cavities, especially bluebird boxes. In this park there are several nestboxes and tree swallows already occupy most of them. However, a bluebird pair also tries to nest in one of the boxes. I’ve been watching this box for a while and it looks like it’s still undecided who will use it. Thus, I hoped to photograph both of these species around this box. I put a perch nearby and hid under my camouflage net. I used my long lens so I didn’t have to be close to the birds and spent only an hour among them, because I didn’t want to disturb their life too much. They didn’t mind me and the swallows started using the perch immediately.

A little after they arrived, the male bluebird came too and chased them away. He did this several times during that hour I spent among them. The bluebird usually perched on top of the box, but in one occasion he used my perch so I was able to photograph him in a naturally looking environment. Unfortunately, the light was a little too harsh, because the birds were only active when the sun was higher in the sky. The mornings are still very cold in Connecticut and the birds aren’t moving a lot during dawn or when it’s overcast. Hopefully, the weather will be better soon.

Gear: Canon EOS 7D, Canon 300mm F/4, Canon 1.4x, Manfrotto tripod