[CT Birds] swallows again

[Frank Mantlik]

Hi all,
When I first heard Nick's first report of rough-winged
with the caves (10 Nov), I immediately considered
southern rough-winged (which I've seen in Venezuela),
given the late date.  The next day I got only brief
views of the rough-winged in flight.  It sounds that
others have now seen them well enough to conclude
Northern.  However, further scrutiny (of the swallows
and the site) are advised.
Frank Mantlik
Stratford

--- Julian Hough <jrhough1 at snet.net> wrote:

> Greg,
> 
> Good to point out. The first day that Nick found
> them and I managed to get down there, I did look the
> Northern rough-winged over and saw no obvious pale
> rump and nothing else, as you mentioned to suggest
> the species.
> 
> With birds following the coastline and becoming
> attracted to that small nucleus, it's conceivable
> that something else could show up...
> 
> Julian Hough,
> CT, USA
> jrhough1 at snet.net
> 
> www.naturescapeimages.net
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Greg Hanisek 
>   To: ctbirds at lists.ctbirding.org 
>   Cc: Edward Hagen ; Dave Tripp ; Mark Szantyr ;
> mantlik at sbcglobal.net ; Peeplo at aol.com ; julian
> hough 
>   Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 6:41 PM
>   Subject: swallows again
> 
> 
>   From Greg Hanisek
> 
>   11/28 New Haven, East Shore Park - 3 CAVE
> SWALLOWS, 3 N. ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS, 1 Palm Warbler
> 
>   The unusually late appearance of N Rough-winged
> Swallows (in a seasonal context they're rarer than
> the Cave Swallows) has drawn some inquiries from
> outside CT about whether we've considered Southern
> Rough-winged Swallow, a Central and South American
> species. 
> 
>   This is a reasonable question when a bird appears
> well outside its normal seasonal context: Could it
> be some other mega vagrant?
> 
>   Mark Szantyr, always on top of such things, did
> broach the subject when the first N. Rough-winged
> was reported a couple weeks ago. On my two most
> recent visits I watched the Rough-wingeds as closely
> as I could and did not see key features that would
> suggest the birds might be Southern Rough-wingeds.
> They lacked the paler rump and rufous-cinnamon
> highlights on the throat that the literature lists
> as Southern Rough-wnged features. Nick Bonomo also
> looked the birds over closely and saw no
> non-Northern features. I noticed on some video I
> found on the Web that at least some Southern R-w
> have a pale nape that results in a capped
> appearance. The East Shore birds do not show this
> feature.
> 
>   Separating these species in all plumages and at
> all ages apparently can be quite difficult (they
> were once considered a single species), but our
> birds offer no suggestion that they're anything
> other than record-late Northern Rough-winged
> Swallows.
> 
>   Very interesting, and as noted before, this
> location merits as much attention as birders can
> give it.
> 
>