canyoneer posted:

*points out a cliff swallow nest*
"haha wow, how do you know so much about birds? take a class or something?"
"oh, i dunno, just picked it up somewhere*"

*real answer is three years ago i visited the museum in the old mission at san juan capistrano and learned they are famous for their nesting swallows and spent an hour on wikipedia clicking through links about the subspecies of cliff swallows and barn swallows and their distinctive bowl or gourd shaped nests made of mud or grass and although both species of swallows can make these mud gourd nests and have a primarily rufous coloring these birds have a squared tail instead of the distinctive forked swallow tail so they are definitely cliff swallows and all those bird facts are seared into my brain forever