The Swallow

The Egyptian hieroglyph for the swallow (wr) means “great”.

Living out of the city in a small fisherman’s town in Uruguay, I have had
the time to observe a family of swallows come every spring and leave
every autumn. They made their nest in a small opening I left when
constructing the roof of my wooden cabin, and every August I see them
return, numbering about 11 fellows. They are from the progne chalybae
species, known here as the “Golondrina Azul Grande” (Large Blue
Swallow).
During the wintertime, between June and September, my cabin is visited
by another fabulous bird: the falcon called “Chimango Caracara”
(phalcoboenus chimango). To my surprise, every morning without
exception I am awoken by a thunderous crash against my bedroom
window. For some strange reason, the falcon smashes its claws against my window every morning
during the winter: an event which began some four years back in 2016, and has recurred without
exception in the following years. I believe it has something to do with the birds own appearance
reflected on the glass, for this awkward encounter began when I had left for the city a couple of
weeks in July 2016. On my return, I found the deck filled with bird droppings, not knowing what
happened in my absence. The next morning I was awoken by a thump downstairs, and going to
check if there was anyone at the door, I found no one there. I went back to sleep and again the
thump. This time I looked out the window towards the gym, and there I saw a bird hanging upside
down flapping its wings under the roof. “I must be seeing things” –I said to myself, and went back
to bed. There were no more thumps that morning, and so I felt curious as to whether I had actually
seen a bird or hallucinated half asleep.
The next morning, however, the thump was more
like a crash, since the falcon had returned and chosen
my bedroom window this time. The phenomena
continued every day, and I managed to observe a pair
of falcons doing the same thing on the windowed door
of the gym. They observe themselves in the window
and flap their wings in order to gain some height and
scratch the glass, I suppose, in an attack maneuver
believing there is another specimen of their own that
is unwelcome or menacing. The bird performs an
almost ceremonial circuit every morning. He sets
himself upon the roof of the gym, glides upwards
towards my bedroom window, smashes it with its
claws, and then performs a circuit around the house,
posing itself in its original station. After the circuit is
done, he screeches five times: first, once in a long voice, the other four in repeated and short beats:
“Iiiieeeee-ae-ae-ae-ae”.1
Now, the falcons seem to have made my cabin a sort of territory for themselves during the
winter. I see them on the pasture behind my house, perched on top of the wooden posts which
mark the limits of my property, or upon the peak of the roof. However, during the coming spring,
I noticed they had left, and my new visitors, the family of swallows, had made their first nest in
that year. A whole year had to pass before I understood why the falcons visiting during the
wintertime were suddenly absent during the spring and summertime.

1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omXj0HI-YK0
 One afternoon I came out of my cabin and stood in the backyard
observing the swallows. They are incredibly fast and agile, unlike
any other bird I have seen. Despite their small size, their body and
wings are made in such a way that they can perform awesome
maneuvers in mid-air, making very sharp turns and even hovering
in a semi-stationary form that reminds one of the hummingbird.
That afternoon I saw the swallows go after a pair of falcons in the
sky. Their outstanding maneuvering capabilities were no match for
the falcons that were totally overwhelmed in a matter of seconds,
and had no choice but to take off far from my cabin into the woods. Indeed, after I saw how
territorial the swallows were, I began to see them chase after other birds: the largest vultures were
also chased off, likewise the Tero (vanellus chilensis), and the Piricnho (guira guira) which
always go about together in group.
There is no match for the swallow amongst the birds I have seen in this country. One would not
have guessed so by observing their size, but they are remarkably intelligent. When I was making
some reforms in my cabin and building a second unit in the back, they would always come and
hover only a couple of yards in front of us, so close that we could actually make eye contact with
the creatures. Seeing that there was no danger posed to their nest, they would retreat after a 10
minute inspection. On another occasion I saw them most agitated and concerned when I was
placing a new front door. When using the drill to drive some holes through the wood, the friction
caused smoke and the odor was of burning wood. The swallows nesting upstairs in the roof got
very agitated and came down chirping towards the opening where the front door was being
installed, hovering only a couple of feet in front of us and making straight eye contact. Despite
their obvious concern about a fire, for us it was a remarkable experience to have these creatures
so close. We never felt fear of an attack, for we understood that their intention was to inspect the
origin of the smell of smoke, and we likewise understood their intentions when they would come
to inspect the construction in the back.
I have never seen them walk on the grass or anywhere else, not even on the rooftop. The falcons
on the other hand can be observed to walk on the grass and on the deck with their chest puffed
forward in a gesture of grace. The tero also walks on the grass with its long thin legs, and even
makes for a run every now and then before taking off, but the swallow seems to prefer flight, even
in the slightest movement from one place to the next.
Ever since I started studying hieroglyphs in late 2018, it has come to my attention that the
choice of the swallow to mean “great” must come from a keen observation by the archaic
Egyptians about this bird’s dominance over others. As we said, nothing in the swallow’s
appearance hints at its greatness, but having been witness to their total dominion over other
species of birds, it becomes clear why the ancient Egyptians chose this specimen to signify
greatness. We have here one of those particularities of Nature that normally escape us in modern
civilization. Alienated from the habits and behavior of animals and plants as we are in our
metropoles, it is very difficult to notice the underlying logic behind the choices made for
hieroglyphic writing, where the gestures of Nature are captured and signified.

GARZA BLANCA GRANDE (Ardea alba)

(Threskiornis aethiopicus)