MOUers: If the swallow with the square tail has a tan butt, then it is a Cave or Cliff Swallow. If that tan butted swallow has a light throat and a dark forehead, it is a Cave Swallow; If that tan butted swallow has a dark throat and light forehead, it is a Cliff Swallow. The fact that on the San Antonio CBC Cave Swallow is a fairly common bird and Cliff Swallow is much less likely argues for the Wisconsin Point swallow being a Cave Swallow.
Hope this helps. Onward! Steve Stevan Hawkins San Antonio TX -----Original Message----- From: Minnesota Birds [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Hendrickson Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2009 5:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [mou-net] Swallow sp & WI Pt. Gulls I arrived at Wisconsin Point at 11am and stayed till 2:50pm. I was birding with Peder Svingen, Karl Bardon and Lars Benson. At 2:40pm I spotted a swallow species zipping over the rocky break wall which is the furthest break wall from us. It only allowed me a second look but from what I saw it had a square tail and a buffy breast. The swallow never was seen again. At 3:05pm I was heading a block west of the intersection of Mocassin Mike Rd and the road the leads out to the end of WI Pt. I noticed 2 swallows while I was driving and one of them had a facial looks of a Cliff/Cave Swallow. I immediatly turned around and tried to catch up to them as they were heading towards the landfill above Mocassin Mike Rd. I never was able to relocate them but I called the other birders back at the Superior entry about the sighting. At 3:25pm I got a call that Peder Svingen ran into a WI birder ( Nick Anich ) who inform Peder he spotted a Cave Swallow at the same intersection where I spotted two swallow species and I was told that Nick thought there were possibly two Cave Swallows. So did I possbily see a Cave Swallow in Mn? UGH! I'll be at Park Point and WI Pt looking for swallows if they stick around. Gulls seen on the MN breakwall: - Great Black-backed Gull ( adult nonbreeding ) - Great black-backed Gull ( Peder found this interesting gull as it looks like this bird was moving into 2nd cycle and it darker than the other two first cycles we been seeing off and on. So there might be 4 GBBGs in Minnesota!! ) - 2 Thayer's Gulls ( adult and 1st cycle ) - 4 Glaucous Gulls ( all 1st cycles ) - 1 Iceland Gull ( 1st cycle ) Other birds seen: - 2 Red-throated Loons ( Karl Bardon spotted ) - 1 Western Grebe ( WI waters ) - 10 Long-tailed Ducks Wisconsin Pt / Superior entry has such a high turn over rate of new gulls being seen each day and hopefully something more exotic like a Mew Gull will be found. So anyway Duluth birders keep an eye out for swallows along the northshore and park point. Mike Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota Website: http://webpages.charter.net/mmhendrickson/ Blog: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/ ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
