Subject: Re: Mystery early AM singers
Date: Jun 18 21:27:34 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Kelly Cassidy writes:

>In the very early morning hours, I sometimes hear a mystery bird singing
>in my NE Seattle neighborhood....
(snip)
>It's a nearly continuous string of twangy, short notes. Some notes sound
>like those of a Violet-green Swallow, but all the VGSW I hear during the
>day "sing" mostly single notes. It is kind of chittery, like a swallow,
>and seems to be constantly moving.

Violet-green Swallows Tachycineta thalassina are the earliest risers,
usually 30 to 45 minutes ahead of the next species outta the sack: American
Robins Turdus migratiorius.

>But what would a swallow be doing up
>when all the bugs are too cold to fly?

Feeding on flying bugs that don't know that it's too cold to fly. '-)
Likely moth-feeding (moths flight-muscles generate a fair amount of heat, I
read somewhere), with or in spite of local bats. The ones outside my place
start up usually an hour before sunrise and even well before first light,
and spend the first twenty minutes or so on wires outside my window in
motormouth mode, sounding faintly querulous and agitated. Well, if we had
nothing to look forward to but eating bugs all day, we'd likely be prone to
complaint as well.

The sound they utter first is a a rather hollow, almost metallic, clicking,
sometimes doubled or sometimes run together, always reminiscent to me of
Captain Queeg and his ball-bearings.

then I read Darrell Whipple's post...

>Denise Caldwell and I had a similar mystery bird at the first stop of the
>Bunker Hill Breeding Bird Survey near Longview, WA, on June 15th. This
>chitterer seemed to be in the alder trees but constantly moving; then we saw
>the bird against the sky at less than 100 feet and were sure from its
>distinctive flight that it was a swift, guessing it was Vaux's. We spent 10
>minutes observing this bird apparently feeding in the air (on what?) between
>4:40 and 4:50 am (when we had to start the survey and move on).
>Then--surprise--we had another one at Stop #2, a half-mile down the road.
>Both sites are in mixed forest along Abernathy Creek at less than 500 feet
>elevation.

...and the following idea occurred. If you look at VG Swallows, they spend a
significant amount of time flying in a way that makes them resemble Vaux's
Swift (VASW) Chaetura vauxi, and they have a territorial display flight
which makes them almost impossible to separate from VASW. As they're both
cavity-nesters, they'd likely be in competition for available nesting sites.
If they're both crepuscular foragers, perhaps the VGSW's early-morning
vocalisings are proclaiming territory to any prospecting swifts (which
arrive later in nothbound migration to find VGSW's already here) which might
be in the area. They do sorta sound like a massive swift. Just a theory,
poorly expressed.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)