Wild Bird Wednesday: Tree Martins

I have a few leftover photos from my recent WTP adventures so I'm joining in Wild Bird Wednesday this week with... Tree Martins!

like this one

and this one 

One of those days out at the WTP it was really wintery - dark and cloudy with heavy showers rolling through. Luckily a lot of birding out there can easily be done from the car.

So during one shower, while I stayed nice and dry, I stopped to watch some Welcome Swallows. They alternated between zooming around and perching on the fence next to the road and amongst them were some little white rumps - this means martins!

martin, swallow, martin

I did manage to catch a glimpse of a red head also zooming by, so there was at least one Fairy Martin, but there seemed to be a lot more of the Tree variety.

And a few of these guys joined the swallows on the fence, holding their wings out to get a bit of a shower (or at least I think that was the idea).

more swallows, one martin

and a wet Welcome Swallow

They were happy to sit quite still so I managed these photos through the open car window with my lil' superzoom. They were quite close and very cute.

Tree Martins (and Fairy Martins, btw) generally migrate north for the winter then return for the warmer months. Seeing these guys is usually a sign that spring is on its way, although you wouldn't have thought so on that particular day!

Find a few more Tree Martin fun facts here and here.