>Hello,
>
>I was more than a little surprised to see about a dozen BLACK SWIFTS
>flying and feeding overhead yesterday evening (8 PM June 7) at the
>Starr Boat Launch on the Columbia River, just north of Wells Dam,
>Douglas County.
>
>They resembled white-throats in size (they were considerably larger
>than the abundany cliff swallows), but they were all dark. I managed
>many non-back lit views to confirm. They were flying between 30 and
>100 feet above the water, acrobatic, tails splayed, the whole bit.
>
>I had thought that these guys were more of a Cascades Area bird.

This is a common assumption. However, the Black Swift is probably the
most common swift in north central Washington. However, most of the
time they are feeding at such heights that they are out of view of
the birder. They can be spotted by sharp eyes looking straight up. In
addition, under stormy conditions such as we've had recently, they
also feed at much lower heights and become more noticeable.

That said, I've seen them on several occasions skimming the cliffs in
the vicinity of Wells Dam in otherwise fair weather--makes me wonder
if some of our Black Swifts are not confined to waterfalls but also
are cliff nesters such as they are in Colorado?


--Jerry <tangren.family at verizon.net>
East Wenatchee WA

>
>Dave Robichad
>Victoria, BC
>somegum at hotmail.com