Thursday, April 25, 2013

April 25, 2013 First record of Violet-Green Swallow for Ottawa!

Hi Everyone
A surprise discovery by Jake Walker this morning was a Violet-green Swallow feeding in a flock of mainly Tree Swallows at the Britannia Filtration Plant near Mud Lake/Britannia Conservation area. The swallows fed low for a while and great views were obtained recording all the important field marks. As the morning warmed up it slowly began to cover feed higher and over a larger area. Fortunately at one point it even perched in a close-by deciduous tree for a minute. No time was wasted and a number of good photos were taken. This represents the first record for the Ottawa-Gatineau district and only the second documented record for Ontario. The first was found on October 28 and 29, 1992 at Thunder Cape, Thunder Bay District. As the morning warmed up all swallows left the filtration plant field and were feeding off Britannia Point over Deschenes Rapids on the Ottawa River. The Violet-green Swallow was relocated around 11:15a.m. after a bit of searching as it feed in a mixed group of 200+ swallows. It was last reported around 1:00p.m. and at that point the swallows were higher up and more difficult to identify. Hopefully it will reappear later this afternoon or towards dusk. If not seen I'd recommend checking tomorrow morning early. The Violet-green Swallows normal range is in western North America. In Canada it reaches to eastern Saskatchewan and is a vagrant in Manitoba and east to the Atlantic coast. There are only a handful of records in the north-east United States. 

Good birding,
Bruce




First record of Violet-green Swallow for the Ottawa-Gatineau Districts. 

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