petrochelidon fulva
Carthage, Texas – Respass Creek at Route 79
Thursday, July 13, 2023 – 10:50 am
There are only two more birds that appear annually in Arkansas that aren’t on my life list, and both of them are considered rare in the state. They are the Fulvous Whistling-Duck and the Cave Swallow. Cave Swallows don’t nest in Arkansas, so far as I know, but later in the summer, scattered individuals show up. These are often immature birds with flocks of the very similar Cliff Swallow. The challenge is knowing where they will show up, and then separating them from immature Cliff Swallows, which look even more like Cave Swallows than adults do.
Cave Swallows used to be very rare in the U.S., nesting only in a couple of caves (hence the name) in the Southwest. But then, about 60 years ago, some bright Cave Swallows realized that bridges, culverts, and other man-made structures have openings that look a lot like caves. Now they nest in colonies all across Texas and even in South Florida, and they appear to be expanding their range even more.
So I decided not to wait until I saw one in Arkansas but, instead, find the nearest breeding colony and look for them there. According to eBird, this was just outside Carthage, Texas, four hours and 10 minutes away. Did I want to make an eight-and-a-half hour round trip to add a new bird? I decided I did.
This particular colony has built mud nests in the culverts under the bridge where Respass Creek goes under Route 79, a four-lane, 60 mph highway. Traffic was fairly busy, but not so busy that crossing back and forth across the highway was a problem. And there were wide shoulders. I parked and identified the swallows flying overhead before I even got out of my car.
I spent the next 45 minutes watching them and trying to get decent, identifiable photos. There were maybe 45 birds wheeling overhead. There were tall woods on either side of the highway, and the flock was often above tree level — sometimes way above tree level. Other times, they came down lower and swirled about over the highway. Occasionally one would dive down into one of the five culverts under the bridge. Four college-age kids parked by my car and went down into the creek. I didn’t ask them what they were doing, but it looked like some sort of research, perhaps as part of their studies. They weren’t there to see the swallows. After they left, I climbed down the bank and looked into three of the five culverts. Each of them had five or six mud nests (see the photo), not all bunched together like Cliff Swallow nests sometimes are, but not far apart either.
I walked into one of the culverts and spooked a few birds that had been hanging around the nests. They fluttered about in the dark tunnel and made their harsh calls. They had just begun to settle down, and I got one photo of one on a nest, when the four kids came back and started doing whatever they were doing at the other end of the culvert. This trapped three swallows between us. They flitted back and forth for a couple minutes, then escaped out of the culvert. I figured as long as the kids were there, I wasn’t going to get any better photos, so I left.
As I mentioned, Cave Swallows look a lot like Cliff Swallows, which I’m very familiar with. They had the same basic coloring, the same body shape and size, and very similar calls. Cliff Swallows have dark throats and white foreheads. Cave Swallows have pale orange throats and darker orange foreheads. For comparison, here’s a photo I took of a couple Cliff Swallows two years ago in Colorado.
I’ll record my other adventures of the day here for lack of a better place.
It was raining hard when I left Conway early in the morning. Along I-30, south of Little Rock, there’s a construction zone with curvy narrow lanes lined with cement walls. I was in the inside lane in packed traffic when a deluge hit and almost blocked my view of the lane. I couldn’t pull over because there was a line of trucks in the right lane, I couldn’t slow down because some moron in a semi was about four feet off my back bumper (and I’m not exaggerating), and all I could see of the truck in front of me was hazy taillights. Somehow I managed to avoid the cement wall and all the trucks and escape.
Half an hour later, still on I-30, the rain had stopped and there was a lot less traffic. I was passing a semi with a flatbed trailer. I’d just pulled even with his rear wheels when he had a blowout. There was a very loud bang, the trailer hopped up off the road a few inches, and large pieces of rubber flew all over. Fortunately, the blowout was on the other side of the trailer from me, and the driver didn’t even swerve out of his lane. I was never in any danger, as it turned out, but it was another harrowing truck-related moment. The rest of the trip was uneventful.