That's what is so great about the cliff swallows in Richmond. You can walk
or drive right up under the nests and even go on the footbridge to Belle
Isle and get closer to them.
Jan
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From: Russell Taylor [mailto:gnatcatcher@xxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 5:35 PM
To: VA Bird
Subject: [Va-bird] cliff swallows
While on a boy scout canoe trip this weekend, I noticed that there is a
pretty good colony of cliff swallows on the VA Rt. 50 bridge over the
Shenandoah River. This is about 4 miles west beyond the Rt 17 intersection
at Sky Meadows St. Park, headed towards Berryville. The attractive thing
about the colony is that if you go over the bridge (westbound) and make the
first right onto Swift Shoals Rd (VA Rt. 622), that road curves around under
the bridge and has a parking area and boat ramp under Rt. 50. With a scope,
you could get pretty good views of the nests and the swallows going in and
out of them. They are on the upstream side, unfortunately most of the way
east on the span (so pretty far for just binoculars).
Cheers,
Russ
