I hadn't seen Hendrik's post before I made mine…but I agree.
On Jan 20, 2016, at 5:29 PM, Hendrik Herlyn <hhactitis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Cody and all,
A Purple Martin in January would be a very rare sighting, indeed. Makes me
wonder if we can totally discount one of the Central or South American martin
species? A Southern Martin in Oregon - why not?! :)
A very intriguing sighting, at any rate!
Hendrik
On Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 5:01 PM, Cody W. Smith <kingsalmon92@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello all,
Today I was out hunting at the Fern Ridge Wildlife Area in the West Coyote
Unit. Around 10:00 a bird flew by me that was swallow-like and my first
thought was that I had seen a barn swallow. Upon observing it flying around
about 5 meters off of the water I immediately recognized it as too large to
be a barn swallow. I am almost completely certain that what I observed was a
PURPLE MARTIN.
Purple Martins are a species that I am quite familiar with and can recognize
easily. It had a forked tail and longer wings, swallow-like flight and
appearance, and an overall uniformly dark body (however the lighting did not
make it easy to distinguish the iridescent purple coloration). I did not hear
it give any vocalizations. It was too large to be a similar Swallow species
such as tree or barn and did not appear to be nor behave like a European
Starling. (Any other species I should consider as possibilities are
definitely welcome)
When I got home I started looking at eBird records and see that there are no
listed observations of Purple Martins in January at all. Possibly this was an
injured bird that got stuck here? If this is, indeed, a Purple Martin it
would definitely be a good record.
--
My Kindest Personal Regards,
Cody W. Smith
p 541-788-7269
--
__________________________
Hendrik G. Herlyn
Corvallis, OR
"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home."
-- Gary Snyder
