[obol] Barn Swallows staging near Vancouver, WA

[Floyd Schrock]

While checking the NEXRAD (weather radar) in recent days to see images 
of the Yamhill Co. Barn Swallow morning fly-out, I noticed a brief 
green blip on several clear mornings at the same time just northwest 
of Vancouver, Washington.  Following a hunch that it might also 
indicate a roosting flock of Barn Swallows, I drove up there this 
evening to look for it, and found it.  As I expected, since the green 
blip on NEXRAD is not as large as the one here near the Willamette 
River, the size of the flock there appears to be quite a bit smaller, 
but still significant.  I estimated the number of Swallows that I 
could see this evening to be somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. 
However, I did not have a clear view of the area at the crucial time, 
so the number could have been much higher than that.

The area I searched is about 5 to 10 miles northwest of Vancouver 
between Vancouver Lake and the Columbia River.  Between 7:00 and 8:00 
p.m. I drove back and forth along Northwest Lower River Road where 
there are many fields of standing corn.  I saw Barn Swallows scattered 
throughout the area, but had trouble determining where they were 
headed.  Eventually, from a distance, I saw the birds gathering, but 
when (at 7:55) I finally found a direct line of sight to where they 
were apparently going to roost, the cloudy sky was quite dark, and (by 
comparing the timing and behavior of the flock I've been watching) I 
believe that many of the birds had already gone down.

I hope some birders in the Portland/Vancouver area might occasionally 
be able to monitor this flock during the next few weeks, although it 
seems to be using a location even less accessible than the flock here 
in Yamhill Co.  For anyone who might have a chance to search, the best 
vantage point this evening was exactly at milepost 9 along Northwest 
Lower River Road.  Unfortunately, there is no place to pull off the 
road at that point, but the flock was directly east of there at a 
distance of about 1/2 mile.  I could not have seen the flock without 
binoculars.  There is space to pull off the road about 1/4 mile north 
of that spot.  I don't know if the coordinates on Google Earth are 
accurate, but milepost 9 appears to be at about 45 deg. 42' 31 N;  122 
deg. 45' 30.55 W.  Maybe I will have to give in and get a GPS unit --  
one more gadget.

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Floyd Schrock
McMinnville, Oregon  U.S.A.
http://empids.blogspot.com/
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