Subject: Re: More on Black Swifts
Date: Mar 23 01:48:23 1995
From: Skip Russell - skipr at teleport.com


Bryan Gates" wrote:
>The records from Cape Flattery are of interest. If specific dates of
>sightings are available, I would appreciate them. They may shed some light
>on spring movements of BLSW onto Vancouver Island. Could it be that these

I've seen Black Swifts there a few times. Here are two records I can put my
hands on at the moment:
2 birds on Aug 23, 1982, at a clearcut about 1.5 miles SW of Neah Bay;
and 2 birds on June 26, 1993 at the town of Ozette.

The latter location is actually about a dozen or so miles south of Cape
Flattery. I recall seeing them at Ozette Lake on one other occasion (I
think July or August of 1991?), but I seem to have misplaced my notes.

Other interesting encounters I've had of this species include a group of
7 which spent a whole day around Vancouver Lake (Clark County, WA) on May
29, 1989. They were presumably migrants, as this species is essentially
unheard of anywhere near Portland.

Another time, I was birding with Jeff Gilligan in the small desert oasis
of Frenchglen in SE Oregon (June 4, 1990, Harney Co.) when one of the
local kids brought us a dead bird he had found in his yard. Yep, you
guessed it--a Black Swift! Interestingly, the only other Harney County
record was also a dead bird found in Frechglen many years before.

Skip
--
Skip Russell
Beaverton, Oregon
skipr at teleport.com