I was sat in the hide this morning wondering how to film the swallows when it suddenly started to rain.
This immediately solved my problem as the swallows started to collect on the twigs just in front of the hide windows.
Superficially it looked as if they had been caught out and were frantically preening in an attempt to avoid getting soaked by the rain.
But I suspect that they were just taking advantage of an easy bath (or rather a shower).
Here they are joined by a sand martin.
More and more gathered until at one point there were no less than nine swallows on the twigs.
Here's one of the swallows landing in slow motion.