Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 21:55:14 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Hoffman Subject: Pt. Lookout-Cave Swallow MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Given the report from Sunday, I ventured to Pt. Lookout today, arriving about 12:30 pm, having some family obligations in the morning. Patty Craig was there, and when I first saw her she was peering through the lenses of her camera at the pond at the end of the road. I was momentarily excited, but the hoped-for swallow flock was not feeding over the pond. She had been there about an hour. We then walked around the point, scanning for anything suspicious. At about 1 pm, I spotted a lone swallow, flying south, as we were walking south down the main road, about opposite the pond. I yelled "swallow" and got on the bird quickly. In a view limited to several seconds, I saw a bright orangish-buffy face-side, including the auricles, contrasting with a dark cap. The orange appeared to extend just slightly onto the upper breast. I did not see any dark area in the throat area. The underparts appeared off-white/dingy, but I was focusing on the head. The wings were dark, but I could not seen the back, rump or tail before the bird disappeared below the phragmites. It quickly reemerged, and now looking more into the sun, I could see no color, but was able to note a square-tipped tail. Size is difficult to judge, but it looked a little smaller than a Tree Swallow. The bird went down again, and it apparently disappeared to the south out over the Bay. Patty and I ran after it, but without luck. In talking with Patty, she did not see it as well as I did, and did not note any color on the bird (which I only saw in the first few seconds of observation). The bird did not reappear, so there was not any reason for calling folks. I continued at the Point until about 3:30 pm, while Patty check some of the nearby ponds and marsh without further success. Although it was a very brief (and frustrating) view, nonetheless I think I observed a Cave Swallow, based on the color of the face-side. Ugh!! Mark Hoffman Sykesville, MD Mhoff36100@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================