Allen Larner, Mark Adams, Stauffer Miller and Fenton Day are looking at the
bird right now in the same place as reported earlier. Crozet Exit 107, Rt.
250 east, first red light, turn on Old Trail Drive to your left. At the
turning circle stay to the left toward the golf course. Pond is on the
left. This is all I know, don't email me for more.
Jan
-----Original Message-----
From: JPMyers@xxxxxxx [mailto:JPMyers@xxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 3:16 PM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Va-bird] Violet-green Swallow,Albemarle County Virginia. 26 March
2011
Found 4 species of swallows in western Albemarle today, as follows:
10:15 Lake Albemarle: Tree (20+) and Barn Swallows (1)
11:05 Beaver Creek Reservoir: Tree (15+), Northern Rough-Winged (1) and
Barn (1)
11: 30 Old Trail Golf Course Pond Tree (10+) and Violet-green
At Old Trail Golf Course about 1 mile SW of Crozet I was studying a lesser
scaup when a swallow came in close -- about 10 ft-- and swooped away, giving
me a very clear look at its rump, back and tail. It took about a second to
register... no, not a Tree. That's a violet-green. It then landed in a
tree over the N bank of the pond about 8 ft away from my head.
I didn't believe it at first-- and knew that none of you would believe it
either-- so I ran back to my car to get my camera. Came back and spent the
next hour focusing on swallows with the camera (400mm lens) as they swooped
over the lake. I found the VG several times and was able to get decent
photographs that clearly document what and where it was.
Here is a link to the photos: http://bit.ly/gGrwV5
Based on the Monticello Bird Club's annotated checklist of birds of
Albemarle this is a county first. And BirdsEye is indicating there are no
sightings right now east of the Rockies (except in Mexico and Central
America).
Here's a screen shot of BirdsEye's map of eBird sightings of VGSwallows
(this
is a beta version, showing the 1000 most recent reports):
http://bit.ly/edK3jo
Have there been previous observations in Virginia?
Pete Myers
White Hall
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