Tree Swallows on the Tuolumne River

Not all of our spring migrants are orange and yellow. In honor of our graduating students at Modesto Junior College, I offer up a tropical migrant in the school colors of blue and white, the Tree Swallow ITachycineta bicolor). The swallows that I see regularly are nesting in an old sycamore above the Tuolumne River below the Parkway Trail.

The Tree Swallows are long-range migrants, wintering in Mexico and Central America, and breed farther north in the Arctic than any other swallow species. California is one of the few places in North America where they can be seen all year long.