I was at Royal Lake in the Olympic National Park, elevation 5100ft.

A few days ago my friend and I watched a solitary, large dark swift glean insects about 20ft above the surface of the lake.

What are the possibilities of this being a Black Swift? Merlin notes them as birds of mountainous areas that are seen singly. Birds of the World indicates a PNW subspecies. They are known to nest behind waterfalls. Two waterfalls are relatively close to the lake.

As I probed my resources, I became less and less sure. They are known to fly high and not come down unless there are low clouds. Brian Bell's Birds of Washington State shows them on the Olympic coast, but not interior. The same for Birds of the World.The WAbirder's dashboard shows ebird sightings near Port Angeles and further south somewhere near the Skokomish River.

Any thoughts on this? If not a Black Swift, any suggestions?

Thank you

Dhammadinna Davis

Seattle, WA

sdd.bodhiheart at gmail dot com