ML126316761

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

**late; one swallow seen moving south the W side of the neck which is not the normal flight line for swallows here, since Tree Swallows almost always arrive from the north (and all of them did come from the north today). Because of this, and some recent reports from CT and NH, I was expecting a Cave Swallow but was even more pleased to see it was a late Northern Rough-winged (5 prior state reports form November vs. 40+ for Cave, although this species is fairly regular in Nov in the mid-Atlantic). Seen very well as it flew north with water as the background, showing even brown color above (rump, upperwings, back, head) with some slightly paler edging above, throat even brownish not much paler than the back and fading to a paler belly. Brown head basically continuous with face to throat, unlike Tree which always has an area of sharp division. Clearly no buff or orangey tones (to indicate Cave), no whitish throat and dark breastband (to indicate Bank), and no hint of darker feathering above, pale throat, or sharp division on face to indicate Tree. It then turned and flew back south, doubled back, and faced into the East wind and rose to great heights and moved to mainland over water to west. I got some photos during this period, but I doubt they are diagnostic since my camera was only manually focusing and the skies very dark.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

ISO

1600

Focal length

260 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/3200 sec

Dimensions

792 pixels x 565 pixels

Original file size

259.35 KB