Hi tweets,

I just returned from doing some birding at Lake Sammamish State Park. There
were many swallows feeding over the fields and along Issaquah Creek in the
'back end' of the park including Tree, Violet-green, Barn, Cliff, and
several Northern Rough-winged Swallows. The latter species was found
nesting in a sandy bank along Issaquah Creek.

To my surprise while observing the Rough-wings, an apparent adult BANK
SWALLOW appeared. It was vigorously chased away on one occasion by a
Rough-wing. Interestingly, although there were several Violet-green and
Tree Swallows in the area, I never saw the Rough-wings chase any other
swallows. I studied this bird for nearly 20 minutes as I wanted to eliminate
any possibility of juvenile Tree Swallow or similar plumaged swallow
species. It vocalized on two occasions: each was what I'd describe as a
long drawn out buzzy assemblage of notes sounding somewhat like a bad
electrical connection.

Compared to NRWSW, this bird had slimmer wings and a long and distinctly
notched tail. Upperwings were uniformly brown. White underparts were set
off by a complete brown breastband. The head and face were mainly all brown
with the possible exception of a paler auricular region. The white was
otherwise confined to the underbody of the bird (i.e., it did not share the
white-sided rump pattern of a Violet-green or even a Tree). The midpoint of
the breastband widened to form a sliver that pointed toward the belly. This
shape and composition of the breastband was seen best as the bird soared
close and nearly directly overhead. At other times, the breastband was very
difficult to study in detail (the bird was never seen perched). This bird
was smaller and slimmer winged than Tree Swallows and was very active and
maneuverable on the wing (minimal soaring or gliding).

While it spent most of its time flying over the nearby grassy field, it did
come in close proximity to the river bank several times where the NRWSWs
were nesting. I never saw a second bird like this one nor did I ever see it
come into the bank. I hope to go back to this site next week to see if the
bird is hanging around.

Carl B. Haynie
Sammamish, WA
chandtr at attbi.com