spizella (finch) passerina (pertaining to a sparrow)
Wednesday, May 30, 1979 – 4:30 pm
Ottawa National Forest, Michigan – Black River Harbor
Several Chipping Sparrows were picking and feeding on the ground under some large pine trees in the picnic grove near the parking lot, about 50 yards from the river and 400 yards from Lake Superior.
hirundo (swallow) rustica (rustic, rural)
Wednesday, May 30, 1979 – 4:00 pm
Ottawa National Forest, Michigan – Black River Harbor
The swallows were flying low over the river near the boat docks between the bridge and Lake Superior. They occasionally zipped through the picnic grove above the river.
molothrus (vagabond) ater (black)
Wednesday, May 30, 1979 – 4:00 pm
Ottawa National Forest, Michigan – Black River Harbor
My girlfriend and I spent the afternoon viewing the falls and hiking along the river. When it began raining, we sat in the car for a while and chatted. The cowbirds were foraging in the grass under one of the tables in the picnic area in front of the car. The area was in an open grove of trees about 50 yards from the river and 400 yards from Lake Superior.
I took this photo (above) in the same spot several years later.
progne (Prokne, daughter of Pandion and fabled to have been changed into a swallow) subis (a name applied by Pliny, Roman naturalist, to a bird that breaks eagles’ eggs)
Tuesday, May 29, 1979 – 12:00 noon
Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin
I was with my girlfriend and some friends. We spent half an hour in a narrow alley that runs parallel to the main street of town. My friend was replacing his car’s gas tank that had been punctured the day before. While he did so, the rest of us stood around and chatted. In a backyard next to where we stood, there was a large martin house. Martins were flying around the yard and out over the town. They often ducked in and out of the house.
petrochelidon (from petros, stone or rock, and chelidon, swallow) pyrrhonota (red-backed, in allusion to rump)
Tuesday, May 29, 1979 – 10:00 am
McNaughton, Wisconsin
I was with my girlfriend and some friends. We stopped at the gas pumps in front of a bar. The Cliff Swallows were swooping over the road and nearby fields. There was a row of about 20 mud nests under the eaves of the building. Some of these nests were in pretty poor shape and a few had collapsed completely. A few dead babies lay on the parking lot under the nests. Occasionally one of the swallows would enter a nest for a few moments. I stood nearby watching them fly around, and one of them circled my head a few times, only three feet above my upturned face.
