Re: [Maine-birds] Cave Swallow, Kettle Cove parking lot, Cape Elizabeth

Hi all,

Ed Hess had the bird at 12:25pm working up and down the beach there, so I think it is likely the same bird. However, as we know, there was definitely more than one Cave Swallow around today.

After failing to find our own in Biddeford today, Kristen Lindquist and I joined a handful of other birders in a fruitless search for the Kettle Cove/Crescent Beach Cave Swallow, with no observations following Louis and Don's.

This will be a tough night for a swallow to survive, but I'm sure some will.  Early morning sun (if we have any) should help.  Louis is right about where to look but I think beaches with deep, thick wrack piles with easterly exposure (sun plus shelter) would be the best place to focus.  The Northern Seaweed Fly that live in this wrack is essentially the only flying insect around in quantity right now, and these late swallows often focus on them, as Ed observed the Crescent Beach bird doing today.

-Derek

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 25, 2012, at 6:35 PM, Louis Bevier <lrbevier@colby.edu> wrote:

Don Mairs and I saw a CAVE SWALLOW fly within 10 feet of us as it skimmed over the Kettle Cove parking lot today about 12:50 p.m. I never saw the bird rise above 1' off the deck. We were unaware that Ed Hess had seen one at nearby Crescent Beach sometime earlier, and I suppose this could have been the same bird. Although not flying weakly, the swallow appeared to barely make it over the lip of the parking lot to the beach. We could not relocate it. Looking for Cave Swallows under the cruel conditions they now find themselves in might mean scanning low vegation, wrack lines, and the nooks and crannies of rocks where they might roost. The stacked rock pile under the roadway into Kettle Cove that forms the eastern end of Crescent beach looks ideal if it weren't on the windward side. I wouldn't be suprised to see one on the ground or in small shrubs. So look low.

Also present today was an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER reported previously by Joanne Stevens along the Saco River walk in the tangles and slopes beyond the sewage plant. At Camp Ellis (Saco) we saw a "blonde" RED-NECKED GREBE among the many normal ones. This bird was quite striking and overall whitish with a pale tan-buff crown and back. I assume its appearance was due to a melanin-challenged plumage abnormality. The bird was in the area at the base of the north jetty to the Saco River.

Louis Bevier

Fairfield

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