January Barn Swallow flock, weird robin and a blue Racer (snake)

[Joel Geier]

On a walk over at E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area around 1 PM, I was checking out a couple of calls that sounded possible for a Swamp Sparrow, on the west side of the Canal Pond where this species often winters.

No dice on the possible Swamp Sparrow (a BLACK PHOEBE started calling persistently a little later, so that might explain what I heard).  But while checking that out, I noticed at least 12 BARN SWALLOWS foraging in the sky above the pond. Occasionally folks have raised the possibility of Eurasian Barn Swallows for the ones that strangely show up in January, but these ones were always too back-lit for me to get a decent look at their throats and undersides. I don't think that idea has ever panned out for winter swallows in Oregon, so most likely these were the same type that we normally see here in breeding season.

Also kind of interesting, earlier on the walk, just north of headquarters, I heard a call that sounded somewhat like an American Robin, but sharper. I looked where the call was coming from and there, up in a snag, I saw what looked like a smallish robin in terms of shape and general coloration (also backlit), but still making that weird call. Then it dove down over the top of me and into a thicket. It still looked like a robin as it flew, not a Varied Thrush and definitely not some smaller thrush. I tried to pish it back into view but it just stayed down in the thicket.

What looks like a robin but doesn't sound quite like one? There's a very similar-looking species called Rufous-backed Robin (or Rufus-backed Thrush). I just listened to some recordings on xeno-canto.org, and ... hmm, maybe. The other leading possibility, of course, is a weird-sounding American Robin. Every now and then you can encounter individuals of common species that have uncommon calls or songs. That seems much more likely than a Rufous-backed Robin this far north, though southern Nevada had not just one but two separate birds that spent the winter of 2021-22 well north of their normal range. So if you're out there, you might want to keep your eyes and ears open for an odd robin.

Coming back to our yard, just across the highway in the grass at the edge of our driveway I was startled to see a snake. It turned out to be a "Blue" RACER -- though definitely not in any kind of a speed-racing mood! I wasn't sure if it was alive, but when I picked it up, it raised its head a bit and looked at me with shiny black eyes. I moved it out into our front-yard prairie restoration to make sure it was well away from the highway, near another patch of bare ground where it could catch some sun.

I certainly didn't expect to see both Barn Swallows and a Racer while out on a walk in January.

--

Joel Geier

Tampico neighborhood north of Corvallis

[Joel Geier]

A couple of follow-ups on yesterday's posting:

(1) A couple of herp-knowedgleable folks have noted that we don't have true "Blue" Racers in Oregon. The local subspecies of Racer in western Oregon is the Western Yellow-bellied Racer (Coluber constrictor mormon). Seems that what I'm used to seeing around this neighborhood are on the "blue" end of the spectrum for that subspecies. So maybe I should call them "blueish Racers" rather than "Blue Racers."

(2) I checked back for that weird robin today, but didn't find any robins at that spot, weird or otherwise.

One new thing today was a GREAT HORNED OWL on a nest, in an "incubating" type of position. So nesting season is now underway.