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I've noticed them building in number in feeding flocks over the back of my house near Bedford - they seem to be moving in general southerly movements. If i remember rightly it was 11th August last year my last sighting. Sad to see them go - they are my indicator of high summer...
Just an update from Rutland. Numbers have defintiely dropped but there are still a few swifts hanging on in there. On the other hand, house martins and swallows are gathering in ever larger numbers. I saw someone in the region of 60-80 resting on the roofs of Top Lodge last weekend.
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.
If you have seen swifts screaming around your rooftops, or know that you have swifts breeding in your area, you can let us know by contributing to the RSPB swift survey
By telling us where these charismatic and vulnerable birds are breeding, you can help us to safeguard their future.
Another great way of making sure that your swift (and other bird!) records have some conservation value and are not 'lost' is to register to the BTO/ RSPB/ Birdwatch Ireland BirdTrack website.
It is a fabulous resource, free to register and simple to use. After registering, you simply add a site name, such as your address, or local park, and then record all of the species that you see there on a given date.
BirdTrack then acts as an online recording system, so if you ever wonder when you saw your last Swift of the year, you can use the search facility to find out. It also includes other great features, such as maps of all of the sites where you have observed a certain species, and you can even download a list of all of the species that have been recorded in your postcode area or at your local nature reserve.
Regards,
Darren
Leave only footprints, kill only time.
No they left my patch in the Stroud Valleys a few days back. It's normally the beginning of the second week in August round these parts
Every day a little more irate about bird of prey persecution, and I have a cat - Got a problem with that?
Flutterbies9 said: Another newbie here. I'm also in Somerset (but a little distance away from Pilton above). I've been enjoying the swifts screaming around for the last couple of months and we do still have some here at present though their numbers are becoming smaller. Whereas there was around thirty a couple of weeks ago it is nearer half that now. They seem to favour a row of three very tall poplar trees close by - but I'm puzzled as there also seems to be a community of pipistrelles (sp?) which favour the same trees. I've stood in the garden at dusk and had the bats flying around me catching insects. Amazing. However, I would not have thought that the bats anf the birds would both use the same trees. Any clues? am I crazy thinking they are all coming from the same three trees? or do I just keep checking / watching to see if I can find out where they are really roosting? Interestingly, there are also a few swallows flying around here. I've never before lived somewhere with such a wonderfully diverse bird life, it's truly great.
Another newbie here. I'm also in Somerset (but a little distance away from Pilton above).
I've been enjoying the swifts screaming around for the last couple of months and we do still have some here at present though their numbers are becoming smaller. Whereas there was around thirty a couple of weeks ago it is nearer half that now. They seem to favour a row of three very tall poplar trees close by - but I'm puzzled as there also seems to be a community of pipistrelles (sp?) which favour the same trees. I've stood in the garden at dusk and had the bats flying around me catching insects. Amazing. However, I would not have thought that the bats anf the birds would both use the same trees.
Any clues? am I crazy thinking they are all coming from the same three trees? or do I just keep checking / watching to see if I can find out where they are really roosting?
Interestingly, there are also a few swallows flying around here. I've never before lived somewhere with such a wonderfully diverse bird life, it's truly great.
Swifts are remarkable in lots of ways Flutterbies. Their scientific name (Apus apus) means "legless" (or footless strictly speaking). This is because their largely unused legs have evolved into little more than hooks for clinging to vertical surfaces. They eat, sleep, drink, and copulate while on the wing (not simultaneously obviously). One swallow doesn't make a summer - but one swift probably does......
Not seen the swifts in Stockton for a week now. Summer is ending. Sigh
The only source of knowledge is experience. Albert Einstein
Hi there, we had literally hundreds moving South over Clent Hills NT about two weeks ago and since I've seen none over Harborne, Birmingham or on a recent trip to the Cotswold.
EXCEPT, when walking a friends dog this evening in Periera Road, Harborne, I heard a whoosh and a swift went past my head at about 100mph and tried to enter a roof (I know that they nest in this particular roof). It failed and quickly returned for another go and it was successful. I stood in shock and then whoosh, another breezed my head and entered the roof. They both screamed at each other and then fell silent. Absolutely fantastic!
I not only thought they'd all gone, but I was buzzed by two and they are here roosting still.
I wasn't aware they roosted this late in the season. FANTASTIC!!!
Just spotted a lone swift, but swift it is, in the Horfield skies. BS7 0AJ. Wow. Looks a bit sad on its own though.
...and another two flew high west over The Lodge this morning. The warden of our Fowlmere reserve reports that young swifts are still at a nest site just off of the reserve.
The odd bird should still be moving through until the second or third week of September, and these are all likely to be this year's young.
Best wishes,
There's been quite a few in the northern Lincolnshire area - many over our Tearoom in Gainsborough and at the in-laws in Caistor! They seem to be moving on now though - thinking about it, don't seem to have heard any for the last few days. There seem to be a lot of swallows still, although they seem to have taken to swooping low over roadside verges in the last week or so, which they weren't doing earlier in the summer. Anyone else noticed this behaviour or can explain it? We narrowly missed one when it swooped right in front of our car!
Make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games [Robert Falcon Scott]
Skies are now quiet over north cardiff.....................its time to say farewell and hopefully see you again next year
Love my Wellies!