Swallow taking five

[witham]

This pic was taken about 6.15 this morning while I was walking my dog before the bike track got busy, it's perched on part of a safety barrier to stop people falling into the river where water is pumped out by the pumping engine and it's the building that the engine is in where they nest. It seems to be taking a break, having a few zzzz's while enjoying the sunshine as I was able to get quite close to it and it didn't fly away as I passed by. Then as we were walking along the top of the river bank a couple more seemed to be almost circling us so perhaps we (me and the dog) were disturbing insects etc from out of the long grass and they were taking the opportunity of an easy breakfast

[witham]

I had meant to ask, the long black 'bit' adjoining its tail, is it supposed to be there like a rudder , or is it loosing part of a feather or just picked something up along the way and also could it be a fledgling as it looks a bit 'fluffy' compared to the others I've seen unless it's because it's resting