ML264747011

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Unexpected. There are no previous Catalina Island records in eBird, but roughly 10 records on other channel islands. Sept 20 is somewhat late for PUMA in California with the majority passing through by around 10 Sept. There are records through at least late September both on the mainland and on the Channel Islands. I took the majority of the notes below in the field immediately after watching the bird and before consulting references. I cleaned up the notes at home and added a sketch. Female-type bird observed at length although from a good distance, first perched and then in flight. I first spotted it perched on a wire about 150 yards away near the golf course with the sun at my back. I was on the east edge of the course and the bird was perched on a wire past the west edge of the course. I didn’t have my camera so I focused on observing and taking notes. It struck me as a swallow but it didn’t really fit any of the usual suspects. Overall the body shape was strange and didn't immediately "click" as one of the normal suspects. The tail looked long and the pale UTC where obvious. It was dark above, darker faced and paler below with a lighter collar contrasting with a darker cap. The wings extended to about the end of the tail. The distance, harsh sun (at a low angle coming from right behind me) and bright blue sky behind made judging the colors impossible with my bins. My first impression was Martin, barn swallow or cave/cliff swallow but it didn’t really click so I kept watching it. Of these I considered Cave Swallow because of the pale collar and dark cap. In any case it was too distant to come to any conclusions. A house finch and later a lesser goldfinch flew up next to it. This bird was distinctly larger (like 1.5x) than the house finch and perhaps 2-3x the size of the goldfinch. I considered everything common I could think of in that size range (towhee, dove, mockingbird, etc.) but nothing was remotely close to this bird in color pattern and shape. After a couple of minutes of waiting it flew and it was immediately apparent that it was a martin. The head/neck was longer than any of the other swallows, the tail was long and substantial with a slight fork, and the wings were longer and had a distinctive shape with broad inner wing and long, narrow outer wing coming to a sharp point. It showed powerful, steady flight and continuous flaps with short glides. To me the flight was reminiscent of a Morning Dove, with powerful strokes and very fast flight, conveying the impression of a heavy, powerful bird. It joined a group of White-throated Swifts and I observed that the wingspan and overall length was roughly about the same or a bit larger than the swifts. However the proportions were different with the overall bulk of this bird being distinctly bigger and broader-winged and therefore appeared to be clearly the largest bird in the flock. It was easy to pick out from the flock with bins or naked eye due to it's large size. I watched the bird for a couple of minutes. It flew rapidly covering a large area, at times flying high nearly over my head (significantly higher than any of the nearby ridges) and generally fed at a high altitude, giving me good views of its shape and flight style. Finally it flew lower in front of a hill for about 10 seconds before disappearing from sight to the east. Against the hill It was dark brown/black above with a gray head/throat, dark underwings and white underparts. It lacked a pale or tawny rump and the paler collar was not apparent in this view. I cannot positively rule out some other martin species from my view, although they are so extremely unlikely that I discarded them as possibilities.

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