Tweeters,

Barn Swallows are continuing to pop up all over the place. On February
3, I saw 2 Barn Swallows flying over Hillaire Road in the Lummi Flats
west of Bellingham. I phoned these in to the RBA but had not had a
chance to report them by E-mail yet.

I have attached a slightly edited message from Terry Wahl, forwarded
from the "Whatcom Birds" group, listing other Whatcom County sightings
of Barn Swallows this winter.

There is one correction to this list of sightings. The 4 swallows from
the "Lummi I. ferry dock" were apparently seen not there, but at the
other end of the ferry run, at Gooseberry Point on the Lummi
Peninsula. They were evidently there from at least Jan. 12 to Jan. 20,
and were seen by Loren Christiansen, a ferry crew member, not by Mrs.
Clark Blake. (Second-hand reporting was responsible for the slightly
garbled details.)

Hillaire Road is only a few miles north of the Lummi I. ferry, and my
birds on Feb. 3 could have been part of the Gooseberry Point group.

Finally, Fredrick Sears and Vance Johnson reported 5 Violet-green
Swallows near La Conner on Jan. 21. There was also a second-hand
report of 8 Rough-winged Swallows on Lummi I., Jan. 20, but I am
inclined to be
skeptical of this identification.

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



----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 4:22 PM
Subject: swallows


> As up to date as I have heard:
>
> Barn Swallow
> 1 on CBC on 15 December (Jim Duemmel)
> 4 at Lummi Is. ferry dock on 12 January (Mrs. C. Blake)
> 1 at Little Squalicum Beach on 13 Jan. (TW, Robin W.)
> 1 at Lummi Bay on 18 January (Valerie Shahan)
> 2 at our place, feeding for 30 minutes or so, on 21 January. These
looked
> like immatures - short, not full tails; pale breasts. (Brendan, TW,
RW).
>
> Terry Wahl
> Bellingham