I went up to Myers/Salt Pt on a lark, so to speak, knowing the NW winds were fast and furious. And they were! White caps, 2-3 foot waves, rollers, crashing on the shore, spray hitting the side of the Myers lighthouse which I was soon standing behind.
Now, you might expect there would be nothing much to see in those conditions, and generally you're right. A smattering of Ring-billed Gulls and 2 Canada Geese facing the wind and leaning into it (pretty amusing actually). But the coolest phenomenon presented itself. As Mark and Tilden reported yesterday, there were swallows. Wow, lots of swallows! It was like standing in the observing window of a wind tunnel as the swallows were more or less stationary in the steady wind blast. BARN SWALLOWs (adult and immature), BANK SWALLOWs, and TREE SWALLOWs were all mixing it up. I tried to find Northern Rough-winged but was not confident that I did. Nor did I confidently see any Cliff Swallow yellow rumps amongst the other blue-backs. The point is what they were doing: they were hovering inches over the 2 foot waves, dipping into the troughs, rising just before the next crest whacked them, and picking something off the water without ever getting wet or missing a beat and getting swamped. This was very neat and the best ever swallow observing I've ever had because they were literally 30' away and flying in place! You could pick out any individual and study it at leisure. The winds are set to keep blowing this afternoon and tomorrow, so if you are over that way, check this out. Lots of other birds on Salt Pt, nothing new, but still fun to hear/see. Singing FIELD SPARROWs, fighting BALTIMORE ORIOLES, singing YELLOW WARBLERs, Flickers, Kingfishers, Ospreys, Common Mergansers, etc. A group of 4-6 Mergansers flew by and I was pretty sure one was RED-BREASTED but I did not get a second look at that one. There were obvious female Commons there but I'm reasonably sure I saw red down the neck, not just on top of that one flyby. Saw one shorebird briefly flash up from the shoreline and fly by at 40 mph before disappearing behind the trees I was using as a shield. I think it was probably a Dunlin from the distinct white wing bar pattern, but can't say with any more specificity because I have little experience with most shorebirds. ChrisP -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
