The swallow movement continued past Holiday Beach CA in Essex County today as well with the following birds noted from 9 am to 3 pm: Martin (Progne) sp. - 1 heading W at 9:54 am. Clearly a Martin by size, shape, and flight style, being Starling-sized but with slender profile, longer wings, obvious notched tail, and flowing flight. Coloration was dark solid blackish above and on the head, throat, and underwings. Underparts (breast, belly, undertail) were clean white and unmarked, while I could detect a bit of dark grayish mottling where the throat met the white breast, but otherwise it appeared fairly clean cut. So far with very limited references, the best candidates for this bird seem to be one of the "Snowy-bellied" Martins (Caribbean, Cuban, or Sinaloa) or an immature male Purple Martin. Conditions were heavy overcast at the time and I observed the bird for around 20 seconds at around 80 m and just above eye level (from the top of the hawktower) through 10x bins. Unfortunately no photos were taken and all said and done, this bird's true ID is likely to remain a mystery. Interestingly, a similar martin was observed and photographed in Massachusetts, USA in mid-October and is detailed by Jeremiah Trimble in a post to the ID-Frontiers bird list on 27 Oct. here: _http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/FRID.html_ (http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/FRID.html) Cave Swallow - 1 heading W @11:46 (with 2 Tree Swallows), 1 W @2:05 (with Cliff Swallow and "Petro" Swallow), 1 swinging back to the SE at 2:17. Cliff Swallow - 1 heading W @2:05 (as noted above) "Petro" (Cave/Cliff) Swallow - 1 heading W @2:05 (as noted above) Tree Swallow - 2 heading W @11:46, 6 heading W @12:02, 5 heading W @ 12:41, 2 heading W @1:16, 2 heading W @2:32, 1 heading W @2:43 All of the swallows were passing about 100-200 meters N of the tower and once clearing the treeline, most dropped down to below eye level (as viewing from the tower), skimming the vegetation just above the water's surface (the Martin sp. was the exception, staying at eye level the whole time). Jim Pawlicki Amherstburg, Essex _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
