[CT Birds] swallows

[greg hanisek]

Weather washed out my Lighthouse Point hawk duty, so I spent some time at East Shore Park working on the swallows. There were at least six present (which would correspond with the 3 Cave and 3 N. Rough-winged reported yesterday). At one point when a number of swallows got into the air at one time I thought I counted 7 and possibly 8, but a lot of Starling traffic in the air at the same time made counting of fast-moving objects tough. Pooring light conditions also made IDing difficult at times. Eventually I was able to see a definite 3 Caves flying together and 2 Rough-winged perched together in one of the big Salix babylonica (?, hey, that's what Google's for). I didn't see anything that made me think any other species was involved. But this place bears as much watching as possible, not only for other swallows (late dates and real rarities) but all kinds of stuff. Nick's very late Broad-winged Hawk underscores that.
   
  From Greg Hanisek
   
  11/26 New Haven, East Shore Park - 3 CAVE SWALLOWS, 3 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS (every day marks another record late date), 4 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 1 Brown Creeper, 3 Palm Warblers.