Northern Rough-winged Swallow 6228
Considering that the Northern Rough-winged Swallow's breeding range is all of the U.S., it's amazing (to me) that I've only seen them twice and photographed them once. The populations in the US and Canada have been found to winter in the southern-most US and further south. While this is true, the populations in Mexico and further south seem to be non-migratory, although local post-breeding movements do occur. This swallow has been found to occur as high as 2,500 m (8,200 ft).
Though I don't have a radar gun, it seems to me that they are among the fastest of swallows wheeling with the ease of a barn swallow. Perhaps the barbed flight wings have something to do with their manoeuvering. I don't know. They feed on insects, almost always over or near water (as with the barn swallows here), and that is where you're most likely to see the acrobatics in flight.
As for not seeing them though they're numerous in breeding season, perhaps it's because they are a plain buff, gray and really light brown bird. In flight, it's hard to distinguish from other "swifts" (probably cousins at least), and when perched, it's usually on bare branches where they blend very well with their surroundings. Maybe I just haven't been as perceptive as I should have been, or perhaps I'm always looking for the most prominent color of birds which are not sparrows, blue.
Whatever the reason, these birds are poetry in motion though perhaps too fast to be "poetic." (I've always thought of sea birds as poetic, riding the thermals for miles and miles which these are the "roadrunners of the sky," darting from quarter-mile to quarter mile.
Anyway, keep your eye out. Breeding season and range is from Mat to July.
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 6228
Considering that the Northern Rough-winged Swallow's breeding range is all of the U.S., it's amazing (to me) that I've only seen them twice and photographed them once. The populations in the US and Canada have been found to winter in the southern-most US and further south. While this is true, the populations in Mexico and further south seem to be non-migratory, although local post-breeding movements do occur. This swallow has been found to occur as high as 2,500 m (8,200 ft).
Though I don't have a radar gun, it seems to me that they are among the fastest of swallows wheeling with the ease of a barn swallow. Perhaps the barbed flight wings have something to do with their manoeuvering. I don't know. They feed on insects, almost always over or near water (as with the barn swallows here), and that is where you're most likely to see the acrobatics in flight.
As for not seeing them though they're numerous in breeding season, perhaps it's because they are a plain buff, gray and really light brown bird. In flight, it's hard to distinguish from other "swifts" (probably cousins at least), and when perched, it's usually on bare branches where they blend very well with their surroundings. Maybe I just haven't been as perceptive as I should have been, or perhaps I'm always looking for the most prominent color of birds which are not sparrows, blue.
Whatever the reason, these birds are poetry in motion though perhaps too fast to be "poetic." (I've always thought of sea birds as poetic, riding the thermals for miles and miles which these are the "roadrunners of the sky," darting from quarter-mile to quarter mile.
Anyway, keep your eye out. Breeding season and range is from Mat to July.