Birders,

Wayne Hoffmann, in the attached note posted to OBOL on Jan. 14,
wondered about the origin of the swallows, mainly BARN SWALLOWS,
reported from numerous localities in late December and January from
southwestern BC and western WA and OR.

In a nutshell, I'll offer my opinion. This is NOT "early migration",
and the birds were NOT "here all along and not noticed" (2 of the 3
possibilities suggested by Wayne). My hypothesis is that these were
birds caught up in the "Pineapple Express" (persistent warm,
southwesterly winds) which dominated the weather of the Pacific
Northwest for the first 2 weeks of January, and carried up here from a
point of origin many hundreds of miles to the south.

This is not "unprecedented", at least not if BC and WA records are
taken into account. Similar incursions of Barn Swallows in January and
February have been observed previously, at least once involving a much
larger number of birds. However, I have not seen any sign of this
phenomenon until about the last 5 years or so.

A partial list of winter reports of BARN SWALLOWS on the Northwest
Coast this winter is as follows:

early Dec. "several" Monmouth, OR Maggie Meikle
Dec. 30 1 Hansen NWR, WA Russ Copenheim
Jan. 3 1 Near Shedd, OR
Jan. 5 8 Yaquina S Jetty, OR
Jan. 5 to 15 1 Nisqually NWR, WA D Hayden, S Nord
Jan. 5 to 15 1-2 Iona I., nr Vancouver, BC many
observers
Jan. 6 3 Livermore Rd., Polk Co., OR
Jan. 13 15 Spencer I., nr Everett, WA Dennis
Paulson
Jan. 13 1+ Steigerwald NWR, WA Pamela
Johnston
Jan. 13 1 Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta, BC
Jan. 14 1 Monmouth, OR Maggie Meikle
Jan. 14 1 Amazon Cr., Lane Co., OR Dave
Brown

The only records of TREE SWALLOWS I could find were the following:

Jan. 5 1 Yaquina S jetty, Newport, OR
Jan. 15 8 Jackson Bottom, Hillsboro, OR Dennis Manzer

There may have been other reports of TREE SWALLOW that I missed
(Harry, perhaps you have some?) There were a couple of reports of
"white-bellied swallows" from WA and BC, but these may have referred
to unusually pale first-winter BARN SWALLOWS.

Clearly, most of the invading swallows were BARN SWALLOWS.
At Vancouver, B.C., this species does not normally arrive until the
first week of April, and the earliest "spring arrival" date I have is
March 24. So I feel confident in saying that these birds were not
"early spring arrivals".

At the same time, at one location-- the Reifel Bird Sanctuary near
Vancouver, BC-- a few BARN SWALLOWS remain until late November or
early December every year, and in at least two winters, were seen
daily into early January (until the first hard freeze). At this
location, a few midges can be seen flying about most days in November
and December when temperatures are above freezing. However, this
pattern of tardy departure (which has persisted since the late 1960s)
does not explain the sudden appearance of Barn Swallows in mid-January
or February in places where they had not been seen for months
previously.

The situation with TREE SWALLOWS is different. This is an early spring
migrant, which normally arrives in Vancouver by late February, and has
arrived as early as February 10. Nevertheless, January or early
February sightings of this species, in my opinion, are probably due to
long-distance movement of birds associated with a flow of warm air
from the southwest.

My apologies for the lack of observer credits in some of the sightings
above, and for any errors or omissions in the list, which I compiled
rather hastily.

In short, my conclusion is, "blame it on the Pineapple Express"! The
phenomenon of winter swallow records would certainly be worth a more
detailed and comprehensive analysis.

Comments, anyone?

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops and Delta, BC
contopus at shaw.ca



----- Original Message -----
From: <whoffman at pioneer.net>
To: Obol <obol at lists.orst.edu>
Cc: Obol <obol at lists.orst.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2002 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Steigerwald Lk NWR Swallows


The swallow sightings this winter are unprecedented in my
experience -- odder than the warbler finds. Does anybody know what is
going on with swallows in other western states? My recollection is
that there was a gap in late fall without swallow sightings, so I am
wondering whether a) they were here all along and not noticed? b)
moved in from somewhere else in North America? or c) are VERY early
northbound migrants?
>
>
Wayne Hoffmann