** Reply to note from Michael P. -


<big snip>

re. Black Swift...
> Usually silent, but heard 'em once when they were working the bugs low over
> the Outer Pond at Iona (actually looking down on them from the
> embankment)--sounded like a throaty low 'chuk-chuk-chuk'.

Actually, Blacks have an equivalent of a White-throated Swift descending cadence
which they use only infrequently, but is lower-pitched and even louder.

> Where there's VG's, Vaux's Swift (VASW) ID is more problematical. The
> descriptive 'flying cigar' sobriquet is quite apt. Unlike most swallows, and
> unlike BLSW, which have a no-necked look, VASW seems equally long
> fore-and-aft the wings.

Agreed.

> I'm not sufficiently familiar with White-throated Swift (WTSW) to speak on
> its flight characteristics, particularly in regard to a comparison to
> swallows, but five gets ya ten that there can be WTSW/VGSW ID hassles. If
> someone from the Interior could comment on how to get around them?

White-throats and VG's often nest in the same cliff-face together. The swifts
flight is sufficiently "swifter" than the swallow that there is usually no problem
telling them apart. Besides, White-throats are the most vocal of our native swifts
and there trademark descending chortling is unlike the mellow chirps of the
swallow.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca