[EBB Sightings] RE: Pine Canyon, CC Co. White-throated Swifts returned? & ALA Co. Cliff Swallows

Greetings EBB'ers
 
Thursday, between 9:30 - 11:30, 8 March. I visited Pine Canyon (Diablo  
Foothills Regional Park/Castle Rock R. Area) with my FLATLANDERS walking  class.  
Beyond the flood control dam we reached  the high cliffs of Castle Rock 
sandstone, the chittering overhead directed our  watching to the air around the 
cliffs to see
sweeping White-throated Swifts, slicing through the air as the Inuits say,  
like scalpels - 18 +/-2..  The question was had they been there all  winter or 
were they new arrivals (breeders).  Several years ago Kevin  Hintsa, who has 
more hours birding Pine Canyon than most, discovered a roost of  ca. 200 
White-throated Swifts in mid-winter using a narrow, elongated cave in  Castle Rocks. 
 Has anyone placed transponders on Central California WTSw's  for tracking 
purposes?  Most of us see newly arrived WTSw's around their  freeway overpasses, 
assuming, primarily for nesting; but were they  returnees from known 
wintering grounds between s. Mexico & Honduras?
 
Of the 31 species, other special birds seen either the late afternoon  7 
March (7th) or morning, 8 March (8th) were:    
        * Mallard - pair in Pine  Creek (8th)
        * Peregrine Falcon -  (8th) 
        * California Quail -  (8th)
        * Great Horned Owl -  calling pair; 5:35 PM (7th)
        * Allen's Hummingbird -  2-3
        * Nuttall's Woodpecker -  (8th)
        * Downy Woodpecker -  (8th)
        * Northern Flicker - 1;3  (7th); (8th)
    NOTE: No Acorn Woodpeckers
        * Brown Creeper -  (8th)
        * Western Bluebird - heard  only (7th)
        * Varied Thrush - 2  (8th)
        * Wrentit - 3;1 (7th);  (8th)
 
NOTE: Cliff Swallows arrived Friday, 7 AM, 9 March 2007.  This is  within one 
day (earlier) of a report last year. They will be celebrated for the  5th 
year at the Return of the Swallows to Chabot College Festival, Cesar Chavez  
Plaza on Tuesday, 3 April. Free and open to the public.  Over 300 pairs  nest on 
campus (exact number secret for the best guess prize). PEG.
 
Happy Birding,
Phil E. Gordon
Hayward, ALA Co.
_PAGPEG at aol.com_ (mailto:PAGPEG at aol.com) 
email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at 
http://www.aol.com.
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