A Mistake Corrected

For the past several years, I’ve seen two species of swallows around the pond: Tree Swallows and (what I thought were) Bank Swallows.

The Tree Swallows have iridescent blue backs and contrasting white undersides. I’ve mentioned them in this blog a number of times. Just this year I’ve shown them here and here.

The other swallows are less remarkable in appearance, in various shades of brown. This year I’ve shown them here and here.

The other day, I was looking at a discussion in the Carolina Birders group on Facebook and realized that what I’ve been seeing are not Bank Swallows, but Rough-winged Swallows. (True Bank Swallows are quite similar to Tree Swallows, but have brown backs, rather than blue.)

This group of Rough-winged Swallows were part of a gang of five. The other two were around the corner, but I couldn’t get them all in a picture. The one on the right looks like a fledgling, as does the one shown in the next picture. This youngster still has a wide “gape” on the sides of its mouth and seems to be shedding downy feathers.

Now I have to go back and correct my mistake in previous posts and in my list of Bird Species at Seagroves Park.