Hi all,
Yesterday I saw a large flock of Barn Swallows feeding and twittering away
over a pond at the end of the spit. I'm estimating around 18 but could
have more or less by a couple. That seems like a very high number - eBird
thought so too.
The other day I also saw two falcons engaging each other with their talons
several times over the river side viewed from the boat launch. There were
a lot of shorebirds (Least and SP Plovers) on the beach just south of the
launch which were their target although I didn't see one get taken. One
was quite a bit larger and seemed to have a lighter back than I would
expect - I also couldn't see the typical mustachial stripe on his face
through my scope when he was perched. I'm guessing that I saw two Peregrin
Falcons doing a mating ritual although I couldn't see food being passed
between them. Is this rather early for this behavior or right on time?
The other possibility is that I was seeing an adult gray morph Gyrfalcon
engaging lightly with a Peregrin Falcon defending his turf. Any opinions?
I continue to see 18-19 Snowy Plovers in the park.
Good birding, Beverly
