After field work this morning, I was hearing some Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) calling and was wondering where the swallows were. In trying to locate the birds, I was puzzled at first the my ears were leading me to an offshore sea stack. But then a few birds appeared and swooped up into a groove in the rock! I'm probably not in the right places often enough to see this, but I couldn't recall observing them nesting on a sea stack before. Looking more closely, I eventually found a few nests.
Above is a view of the sea stack. The nests are in two locations — next to the jagged notch (cut-out) at the upper right corner of the rock, and along the dark groove that curves down vertically at the lower right corner of the rock. Below is a closer view where you can look for the rounded mud nests attached to the rock:
3 comments:
Jackie, this is amazing!I zoomed in on the photos and got quite a thrill seeing those nests. Thank goodness you were out there at the exact time to be able to see the birds swooping into their nests; without that clue, they might have gone completely unnoticed.
And then of course there's the "birding by ear" factor; you wouldn't even have thought to look at that substack for nests if you weren't tuned in to your ears so well.
Thanks so much for posting these photos.
There is a sea stack south of Duncan's Landing that has dozens of cliff swallows nesting, also. They fly to the cliff below the road to get the mud for their nests.
Thanks, Alice and Jennifer! I'm always happy to follow sounds to interesting sightings -- auditory explorations and adventures! And I'm glad to know about another sea stack nesting site for Cliff Swallows nearby.
:) Jackie
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