Date May 2, 2025
Location Moore Park, Del Rio, TX
Our last stop of the day was to a place called Moore Park, where Green Kingfisher had been reported. This was a city park, next to schools and civic buildings, with a stream running through it. It was a nice green space, but I had my doubts that we'd see anything interesting there beyond the usual suspects. It turned out to be an extremely productive area, despite all the cars and people about.
First we walked down to an overpass. There were dozens of swallows flying around. We soon spotted mud nests attached underneath the overpass. It was clear they were either Cliff or Cave Swallows (due to the nests and lack of forked tail).
However, it was quite difficult to make out details from the flying birds, and the ones on the nest were constantly moving as well, and heavily shaded. There were two things that made us determine that they were Cave, not Cliff: 1) the sounds they were making were distinct from Cliff and matched the sounds for Cave on the app; 2) the nests were not jug-like like Cliff nests; they were, as described in the Sibley's app, "a partially enclosed half-bowl of mud." Bingo!
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