Subject: Hybrid Wigeons and Barn Swallows
Date: Feb 3 10:22:44 2003
From: Bru Helmboldt - duvalltweet at hotmail.com


I sure would NEVER have guessed that wigeons and swallows would hybridize!
Hmmm. Who'd a thunk it?


bru h

.. 0> Bru Helmboldt "tHe cold bumBler"
.. _/_)_ duvalltweet at hotmail.com
.. / Redmond, Washington, USA
.. 47 40' 14" N, 122 01' 14" W
.. "Funny, I don't remember being absentminded!"
.. http://www.geocities.com/bruhelmboldt




>From: "Nigel Ball" <nigelball at bainbridge.net>
>Reply-To: nigelball at bainbridge.net
>To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Hybrid Wigeons and Barn Swallows
>Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 21:16:53 -0800
>
>Hi,
>There's an interesting article on the status and identification of American
>Wigeon in this month's British Birds. The plate of upperwing patterns is
>very helpful, as is the statement:
>"Male Eurasians regularly have a small area of green feathering behind the
>eye, occasionally have extensive green behind the eye, and (rarely) have an
>extensive green post-ocular stripe resembling that of male American."
>
>The conclusion is that several cross-over (?) features are a better
>indication of a hybrid. For example, the male at the big lake in Port
>Townsend (Saturday), which has nice speckled cheeks and pinkish on the
>sides of the belly in addition to both a eurasian/american head pattern.
>
>Now barn swallows, of which there were 31 at Neah Bay today. They were
>difficult to see clearly (being somewhat frantically occupied with
>foraging), but none were in the advanced state of new plumage that would be
>expected for early Feb. Infact, some were a little startling, with old
>brown primaries, white underparts, short tails, and blotches of faded
>feathers. Have the other swallows over this winter been similarly
>unmolted?
>
>Nigel Ball
>Bainbridge Island
>nigelball at bainbridge.net
>


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