Violet-green Swallow in Chicago
As I'm sure you all know, from reading the Rare Bird Alerts
thoroughly <<GG>>, the Chicago hotline has reported a female
Violet-green Swallow nesting in a bluebird house with a Tree
Swallow in the NW portion of Rockford Area. This is a pretty
rare bird for Illinois, the only other confirmed sighting being a
specimen taken in the late 1800's.
I called a friend of ours and he was ready to go along with us
since we were also going to be hunting Lark Sparrow as well.
Both would be Illinois birds for him. He was willing to chase
two birds but not just one. As it turns out, not an
unreasonable position to take.
We left about 7am on Saturday, June 11, 1994 and got there about
8:45. Lee Johnson, the owner of the property, was, at that
moment, peaking into the bluebird house. We figured that was a
bad sign. It turned out that the Violet-green Swallow was
apparently gone and there were no eggs in the house. He had not
seen it all morning. The Tree Swallow was still around, though.
As we were arriving, we had seen a bird in the road, a road kill.
We had joked that it was probably the Violet-green Swallow.
As
we were standing around bemoaning the absence of the bird we had
come to see, we began to think that maybe that really was the
bird. When we drove away, we looked for the dead bird but could
not find it. As this story will relate, it wasn't the bird.
After waiting around for a few moments, following Lee's
instructions, we headed over to find the Lark Sparrow. He was
singing and using the telephone wire consistently so we had a
very good look at him and were able to use the scope.
That evening, the Chicago hotline reported that the Violet-green
Swallow had reappeared in Lee's back yard later that evening,
though was no longer interested in the Tree Swallow and the
bluebird house. On Monday, when I got home from work, I checked
the Rockford hotline and it indicated that the swallow was back
consistently now, hanging out with the Tree Swallow and using the
nest box. Kate got home just a little later and we threw
caution to the wind and headed off to Rockford.
The drive was about 2 hours and I was nervous about whether we
would get there too late. Luckily, when we got there, they
were
still active.
We pulled up to the yard where they were, looked at the bluebird
house which was unoccupied and then we started looking around.
We saw her sitting on the road ahead of us. As she flew away, I
could see the white sides of her rump. She flew around and
then
landed on a wire about 50 feet from us and sat still for a
while...ALMOST long enough for me to put a scope on her. We were
able to see the white extending up into her cheeks, the greenish
back and, when she ruffled her wings, the white on the sides of
the rump. Periodically, she would fly around and come back
to
roost along the wire.
We muttered a "whew" as we drove away. i would have hated to
make that trip a second time and not get the bird. Luckily,
we
saw it and got good looks at it too.
The only mystery is where she had gone off to, during her
absence. My guess is that she was getting her head together.
These mixed marriages can be a challenge, you know. <<GG>>
Jim Frazier
June 14, 1994
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