Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 11:49:45 -0600 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gwen Brewer Subject: Re: Age of Cave Swallows MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Patty- Exciting news on the cave swallow, and thanks for the continued information! I was curious about your statement that a juvenile bird should be in flight feather molt at this time of year. My curiosity led me to see what "The Birds of North America" series cave swallow account (No. 141, 1995, by Steve West) says on this point, so here it is. For juveniles going into their first basic (adult) plumage (pre-basic molt): "Molt begins on breeding ground in Sep; generally completed in mid-Oct, probably before fall migration." For adults, the molt (definitive prebasic) "Occurs mostly or entirely on breeding ground prior to fall migration." Although the author states that the sequence of feather molt is largely unknown, the molt of the primary flight feathers begins before the molt of tail feathers. Most detailed information in this account seems to be from the New Mexico population, with some information from populations breeding in Texas. Thus, it sounds like we would not expect the first-year birds to be in flight feather molt at this time of year. Any observations of molt would be very useful for this species. Hope this helps- Gwen Brewer Waldorf, MD ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patty Craig" To: Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 7:31 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Age of Cave Swallows > Hans, > > I have tentatively aged the swallow that I saw as an adult for two > reasons. First, I saw no buffy edges on the tertials and, secondly, a > juvenile bird should be in flight feather molt at this time of year and > the adult should be finished. I saw no molt. > > Good Birding, > Patty Craig > Dameron, MD > pattycraig@mail.ameritel.net > > --- > [This E-mail was scanned for viruses at mail.ameritel.net] > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================