petrochelidon (from petros, stone or rock, and chelidon, swallow) pyrrhonota (red-backed, in allusion to rump)
Tuesday, May 29, 1979 — 10:00 am
McNaughton, Wisconsin
I was with my girlfriend and some friends. We stopped at the gas pumps in front of a bar. The Cliff Swallows were swooping over the road and nearby fields. There was a row of about 20 mud nests under the eaves of the building. Some of these nests were in pretty poor shape and a few had collapsed completely. A few dead babies laid on the parking lot under the nests. Occasionally one of the swallows would enter a nest for a few moments. I stood nearby watching them fly around, and one of them circled my head a few times, only three feet above my upturned face.