Every spring I look forward to photographing the baby swallows as they line up and dance to beg for food. Last Saturday at Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive (LAWD) I found Barn Swallows congregating near their nesting site. I grabbed my intermediate telephoto lens and challenged myself to get some sharp photos of these tiny aerial acrobats.

It’s a challenge to photograph these birds on the wing. They are rapid fliers as they zoom around over the canals. I think they are nesting under this one bridge. Occasionally they would land on a branch out over the water, so I positioned myself low on the bridge and waited. Then this bird posed right in front of my lens. :)

It’s quite fun to practice your flight photography skills on these little guys. I was happy to get a few shots in focus. When I looked at the images on my computer, I saw that the birds were dive-bombing insects in midair. They reminded me of the Swallow-tailed Kites that congregate over these same fields at the end of the summer.