The swallows on the Sharpness canal

I have been hobbling for the last couple of days having hurt my knee.  But today I had to go to Gloucester to buy some special foods, so decided to go and sit by the Sharpness canal to watch the swallows under the swingbridge where they have their nests.  I drove a slightly longer way round and on a whim headed down to the River Severn where Framilode church was built on its banks.  The small road there is a cul-de-sac and is very quiet with a just a few houses in the hamlet.

I knew that the housemartins would be nesting in the eaves of the church tower and that it would give me some more fleeting subjects to practice getting shots of them in flight.  I spent far too long there but did find that my standards have improved so I'm getting many more sharp shots, especially the ones of the birds flying over the river itself and the trees on its banks.  But the shots pointing up at the church tower where there are so many mud nests all occupied by tiny little youngsters weren't so good.  My exposures against the bright skies were very poor, with dark shadows under the eaves and the rapid flight movements as the martins arrived with food and then left again relentlessly.

I have added some 'Extra photos' today of a range of subjects I've seen including some of martins.  But my main image is of the swallows flying to and from their nests under the swingbridge over the Sharpness canal. This picture is from when the bridge was opened to let a boat through which dosn;t seem to disturb the swallows at all.  In fact it makes it easier to fly up under the bridge.  

Whilst there  looking underneath the bridge trying to get these shots, a women's coxed four rowing boat prepared to row up to and under the bridge.  But as they slowed down some distance away in order to duck under the low bridge, i heard the sound of a swan running on the water's surface getting up to speed to take off.  As soon as it passed the rowers and gained a few feet of height I urned to start photographing it.  Looking at the images now I can see that it starts to pee once it is about ten feet off the water and carries on as it flies past me.  I don't know if it was aiming at me, but I'm glad it didn't rain on me.  I have added one of the shots of it to the 'Extra photos' as well, and I think you can clearly see what was happening!