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Posted by Angel & Mariel on 15:21:37 12/21/14
Hey all, be on the look for out for BAHAMA SWALLOW while looking for Key West Quail-Dove at Long Key State Park. Mariel and myself along with two out of town birders observed an adult BAHAMA SWALLOW flying over Long Key State Park along the road between the campground and the turnoff to the Golden Orb Trail. Sorry for the late report, we ve been busy with work and catching up on zzzz s after camping the Keys and the Glades and our local CBC count.
We were walking back from the trail on the main road when we stopped to study a Ridgway s Osprey that was perched atop a power pole along the picnic area of the park. While pointing out the differences between our American Osprey and the ridgwayi" Caribbean counterpart, we had two swallows fly over our heads. We identified the first swallow that showed up as a Tree Swallow, but a few seconds later a second swallow joined the Tree Swallow. The birds foraged together over US1 working their way towards the bayside, the swallows stayed in view for about two minutes giving us side-by-side comparisons. The long, dark forked tail was quickly evident as well as bi-colored underwing linings with clean white extending from the body towards the shoulders and up into the auriculars, reminiscent of a Swallow-tailed Kite, but a tiny one :) We followed the two swallows until they were too far to see in our optics. The birds continued to forage the skies, roughly moving NW over the bayside of the key. No photos were taken of the swallows as the only camera between the four of us was in my backpack (arghh!) We stayed in the area waiting for them to cross back over the road to no avail. Later in the day, just around sunset we did observe two swallows far north of our campsite while scoping vultures in hopes of snagging a Zone-tailed Hawk ;) No Zone-tailed, but we did however find one dark morph Short-tailed Hawk in the mix with a large kettle of vultures.
Back to the Ridgway s Ospreys, we photographed two individuals over the weekend, one at Long Key SP and a second bird about 14 miles north of LKSP. A third bird was seen just about a mile north of the World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada and two more in northern Tavanier, almost Key Largo. If anyone is birding the Keys in search of the Doves or the Swallow, please pay attention to the Ospreys and report any Ridgway s seen. They are quite simple to pick out from our regular American" Osprey. The most noticeable feature to look for is the limited black on the face and crown of these birds. The amount of black can vary from bird to bird, with some almost completely white-headed. Check out the photo above for reference, notice the lack of bold black behind the eye and crown, some buffy tones to the ventral side of the bird as well as the lack of bold black carpal patches, which is usually very noticeable on the American Osprey. Please report these Ridgway s birds to eBird and make notes in the description if possible. Little is known about these birds and the lack of academic studies makes it hard to call this a true subspecies, but we hope that with enough sightings, photos and DNA testing, these birds will be better understood and hopefully attain full subspecies status!
Nature is Awesome
Angel & Mariel
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