Swallows testing wings

For the past couple of weeks, I've noticed that the phone and electric lines have started to sag under the weight of Tree Swallows, particularly youngsters that have fledged recently and are now testing their wings as they attempt to master the air. I see members of the Tachycineta bicolor clan on almost every walk and bike ride, and I often spot them over the millpond and the lake as the agile birds skim low over the surface of the water in search of insects, their preferred food these days. I wonder if songwriter Leonard Cohen had them in mind when he wrote these classic lines in the late 1960s: Like a bird on the wire/like a drunk in a midnight choir/I have tried in my way to be free. I certainly call up that song whenever I spot these birds trying to learn the requisite skills necessary for aerial freedom and, soon enough, migration. But the leave-taking is at least a month in the future. No need to think about another song, the one that discusses the "urge for going," in high summer. No need at all.