[SBB] Bank Swallow at Mountain View Forebay

[Mike Rogers <[[email protected]]>]

All,

Over lunch today 8/22/07, I headed up to Charleston Slough to look at 
shorebirds as the mudflats uncovered. I got side-tracked at the Mountain 
View Forebay pumphouse, where numerous swallows were perched with beaks 
wide open in the heat. The bulk of these were CLIFF SWALLOWS, with my 
high count of this species being 54 birds, the vast majority being 
recently fledged juveniles, but at least 8 adults being around too. Many 
juveniles tried to beg from the adults but were ignored. Studying the 
more cryptic plumage of the juveniles was quite instructive for anyone 
hoping to pick out a Cave Swallow at this time of year. Also present 
were at least 8 BARN SWALLOWS, including an extremely worn or leucistic 
molting individual. A few other swallows stopped by for brief visits, 
including a hatch-year (HY) VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW, an adult VIOLET-GREEN 
SWALLOW in primary molt, an HY TREE SWALLOW, and an HY BANK SWALLOW. The 
BANK SWALLOW flew in at 12:36pm and perched on the gutter among the 
CLIFF SWALLOWS, being immediately obvious because of its smaller size. 
It spent the next three minutes alternately facing away from and to me, 
before flying off, not to be seen again.

Good numbers and variety of shorebirds were in the slough, but nothing 
unexpected. Dabbling duck numbers in Adobe Creek and the nearby flood 
control basin have increased notably, with 80+ GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 60+ 
CINNAMON TEAL, 50+ NORTHERN PINTAILS, and several hundred NORTHERN 
SHOVELERS likely consisting of mostly recent arrivals.

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

-- 

Opinions expressed are my own and not those of NASA.

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Michael M. Rogers, Ph.D.
Mail Stop T27B-1
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035
650-604-4732

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