On every walk past Palmer's Pond in the past week, there's been a congregation of swallows skimming the water in search of insects and, I'm sure, displaying flying skills that just might impress the ladies. From the square cut of the tail and the overall coloration, I'm thinking that they're all Tree Swallows, but when I checked out swallow identification techniques on the Cornell "All About Birds" website, I learned that when the aquatic insects hatch en masse, the birds often work the water in mixed-species flocks. I've spent some fun time trying to capture the birds in flight, and it's no easy task, particularly when the light is less that optimum. It wasn't bad today, and I managed to get some decent, if not perfect, mid-flight photos. This is one of the best, but, clearly, it's not a Tree Swallow. Rather, from the lyre-shape of the tail and the "often hard to see" tail band—this assessment from Cornell—I hit ID pay-dirt, and captured a Barn Swallow in action.