Subject: Birding at Greenlake (fwd)
Date: Jun 29 07:31:19 2001
From: Dan Victor - dcv at drizzle.com


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This message is being forwarded to Tweeters (by Dan Victor) because the
original sender is *having trouble* with his mailer. Please copy this
email address with any responses to MartinMuller at email.msn.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Wed, 27 Jun 2001 19:38:30 -0700
From: "MartinMuller" <MartinMuller at msn.com>
To: "Margaret Parkinson" <margparkie at home.com>, <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 07:44:01 -0700

----- Original Message -----
From: "Margaret Parkinson" <margparkie at home.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 4:44 PM
Subject: Birding at Greenlake

> Now, beginner question. I saw a group of three small birds perched on
> a upper branch of a low tree beside the lake. They looked something
> like swallows but were not the ones I am familiar with ... barn,
> violet/green, tree. They had darkish backs with light orange breast
> and some light orange on parts of the back.

Margaret,

Sounds to me like you saw newly fledged Barn Swallows waiting for their
next meal to be delivered by their parents. The young look somewhat
different from the adults. The outer tail feathers are shorter (so much
less of a forked tail), their backs are dark but the forehead and
underside is paler than the adults'.

Young perched in branches over water or on that blue milfoil harvester out
in the lake is an annual occurence around this time of year. Adults forage
over the lake and then find the youngsters, hover in front of them or
briefly land beside them, stuffing food in their bills. I don't know about
the one youngster you describe attempting copulation. May this have been a
botched attempt at landing by a novice?

Cheers,
Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com