Bizarre Bank Swallow Behavior (1 Viewer)

Perhaps not as bizarre as I thought???

I live in coastal New Jersey, and have noted a colony of bank swallows. I have seen their tunnels high on a 150 foot eroded gully. I have not seen them enter the tunnels, but have identified them by their amazingly agile and random flight patterns.

Last week, I noted about 50-75 swallows circling around-and-around a manmade pile of dirt behind my home. The dirt pile is a remnant from past excavations for home construction and is now completely overgrown by weeds. The mound is about 5 feet tall, flat on top, and about 20 feet in diameter.

The swallows just continued to fly in circles with individual birds breaking off randomly for a swoop around the area before returning to the circle.

Has anyone noticed this behavior before? Were they taking advantage of a group of bugs confused by their swirling??? Please help to id this behaviour. Thanks!!

I'm sure someone will come 'round who can better answer you than I can, but from my knowledge of swallows, it sounds like they're just feeding over a particularly rich bug area.

Having said that, these are definitely swallows, right? Not small bats? (You didn't say what time of day you observed this behavior, so I'm just taking a stab in the dark here.) At dusk, certain species of bats will come out of tunnels/caves/buildings and acclimate to the fading light by circling for a while before taking off in all directions to feed.

Whichever, it must be wonderful to observe!

Hello there and thanks!

Confirming definitely not bats. Time was near dusk (prime bug weather I assume).