I stopped in the underpass to look at the nest of the red rumped swallow Cecropis daurica. I was curious to see if the nest was occupied and curious to see its form, similar to a barn swallow but with a sort of elongated tube entrance. An impressive sculpture. I am fascinated by swallow and martin nests, laborious, meticulous beautiful structures, tiny blobs of mud, grass and saliva (each nest it is calculated is 1000 blobs of mud that they have flown, collected and brought back to make their nest).
I like that it is in this place. A liminal space between human and wild. It is wild here in the concrete, under the motorway. A good place for a nest I think, sheltered like the swallows like it, yet a place that would go unnoticed. I think of the nests I saw removed and this is place that most would not notice there is a nest, or if they did they would not care. No one cares about dirty walls under here.
I look around and find a lot of life. A huge escolopendra centipede. Bee and wasp nests.