Week 45 Cave Swallow Week
The Cave Swallows arrived! If you recall last year we saw them at Fifty Point after a few days of strong Southwesterly winds coming up all the way from Texas. This is generally a yearly phenomenon, and it helps that they are now on birders radar in the first week of November to check any swallows carefully. Generally speaking our swallow species are long gone by this time which makes it easier to decide if it is a Cave or a late Cliff. The two species are very similar in colour and shape. On Tuesday the winds were good but I had promised to take my two granddaughters for an afternoon of shopping and then dinner to celebrate their birthdays. There were a few reports of Cave Swallows so Wednesday morning, with good winds again, we headed to Fifty Point first thing in the morning and spent a few hours watching the sky for small birds flying over. No luck.
We then decided to drive the hour to Port Colborne as a Purple Sandpiper had been seen Tuesday. As you know, chasing as soon as the bird is reported is ideal but we seem to have a lot on our calendar so we are chasing things a day later. No Purple Sandpiper but crazy winds off the Lake made me wish for the summer again.
With a shift in winds again on Thursday if was suggested that they might be seen along the Erie and Ontario shoreline so Thursday we headed to Long Point after yoga to try and catch up with a few that had been reported over the last few days. No luck. It was a lovely sunny day, a bit cool but nice to be out and seeing a number of birds around Long Point.
Saturday there were two reports from Pelee of Cave Swallows around the Marsh Boardwalk first thing in the morning and they were roosting. Finally, a situation where they might be chaseable. Jerry had an ultrasound first thing so we were delayed leaving and would only get to Pelee in the afternoon. When we arrived just around 1:30 we headed out on the boardwalk and met up with a birder who let us know that they had flown from underneath the boardwalk at the pergola about 10 minutes ago and had flown to where we were at the Marsh Tower. They had been seen going back and forth between the two places. We had just looked at the tower and did not see anything so decided to continue to the pergola area. Nothing there after a few minutes so we headed back to the tower and spoke to another birder who had pulled into the parking after us and he saw two swallows by the Marsh tower minutes after we had walked down the boardwalk. Oh boy! Two misses. We decided it might be wise to cover all the bases. We had met up with Robert who saw them right at the parking an hour before us but he wanted to stay and get better pics so we each took a spot and then switched around after 10-15 mins. I sent Jerry out to the pergola where there was the best chance of pictures, I took the tower where I could see out to the pergola with bins and Robert took the parking and wharf area. After a bit I asked if he would check the beach across the road just in case they had headed there to feed. Jerry had wanted to go to the beach because he hates standing around waiting for a bird and I knew he would be pushing to do that but I thought we should stay where they had been seen. A few minutes later I see Jerry walking back towards me from the pergola. Sigh! It was barely 10 minutes! I phone him and tell him that Robert is checking the beach and he needs to stay out there. He says for how long, I tell him I am prepared to stay until dusk, it is 2pm. He tells me he thinks they have left and then wait I see a bird! I hang up and train my bins down at the pergola and there is a beautiful swallow just above the water swooping around. Then I see that Jerry is trying to get a picture in the sky and I quickly call Robert and then head to the pergola. Jerry had managed to get a few flight pics and indeed it is a Cave Swallow. I sat on the bench under the pergola and a minute later a swallow swooped down and disappeared under the boardwalk. Too fast to get a pic but enough to confirm the pale rusty rump of a Cave Swallow. A minute later another swallow, or the same one swooped in again! We all had a laugh after about all the things that lined up to us getting that Swallow. Splitting up the areas, me sending Robert to the beach, me phoning Jerry at that moment so he saw the swallow otherwise he would have walked back and we could have missed it completely. Of course, if he had been patient and just sat on the bench and stayed out there he would have had spectacular looks at the swallow above the water and perhaps a better picture. LOL
We stopped at Erieau on the way home to scan the harbour rocks for a Purple Sandpiper. Most years they can be seen at this spot and where we saw it last year but there was nothing climbing around the rocks. This is the next bird we need to track down.
There were two rarities this week that we did not chase. A Rufous Hummingbird is visiting a yard near Flesherton and inviting birders to visit. We, of course, saw many out in my brother’s yard this summer and we previously saw this species in Oakville one winter so we don’t need it for our Ontario Life list. A Northern Gannet had been seen sporadically along Lake Ontario and again, we saw many out East. We do not have this bird on our Ontario life list but I’m ok with that, it is a difficult bird to track down and I want to concentrate on what we do need.
Week 45 1 species added 427 species J&E
