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
