Hey Ontbirders. Been out all day and had a friend make two posts for me that I
phoned in while in the field.
At the Leslie St. Spit today I was able to study a single Cave Swallow at VERY
CLOSE range today (10 meters?). The bird was feeding along one of the eastern
rubble jetties and flew in to sit twice on a concrete slab. I was able to flag
down a photographer who has promised to send me the photos which looked pretty
darn decent on his camera screen.
The bird appeared to be undergoing molt of the blue-black crown feathers and
within the wing (eg. coverts). Much of the flight feathers appeared to be worn
but we'll see what the photos show. So far as I can tell though, this bird
exhibited all of the characters of an adult. A fairly heavy light brownish
band across the upper chest that bled down the chest sides slightly was
interesting to note as Nat. Geo. doesn't really show this and I don't think
Sibley does either (don't have it on me at the moment).
It would be great if everyone was recording what age all of their Cave Swallows
are. Long Point seems to have banded only Juveniles (according to a
conversation with Ross Wood) but I seem to have only seen adults so far this
fall (4 or 5 birds identified for certain).
I suspect that tomorrow morning will be no different than this last week and
that everyone interested in seeing this species should be out EARLY morning
(8-10am) as they seem to be quite active early on, dispersing more as the day
progresses.
As always, Good Birding,
Andrew Keaveney
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