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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...
Unknown said: 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...
Many passing through Newhaven on south coast and still a lot in Newcastle when I arrived this morning. We used to have Swifts nesting under the end gable when we moved here (20 years ago) but none recently. Put up two Swift boxes this year, with speaker and Swift CD but no takers.
The older I get the more I know about less and less.
we seem to have quite a few about at the moment in gateshead. about 8.30pm,if the weather permits, we often stand and watch them from our back door. starts off with one or two then within minutes there seems to be dozens of them. Hubby and i usually have a competion about march each year as to who can spot the first one. we don't do this in reverse in August as, for us too,. it means summer is coming to a close
NO. Absolutely not now. This is day four without Swifts in Horfield district of Bristol.
Farewell, my wonderful beauties. Please return in greater numbers next year. And don't anyone in Cyprus DARE shoot at them on migration.
I had a regular flight of some twenty swifts that screamed over my Clapton (London) home, then a fortnight ago, I noticed the crowd had swollen and almost doubled. Two days later, the skies were silent and empty. I miss them already.
Well i did think they'd all gone now as i haven't seen any for the past few days at all. I saw the same as Tim, a huge built up in numbers, maybe 80 or so in a loose flock passing over my house last week and then nothing.... just when you think its all over on my tea break half an hour ago i noticed a pair pass over the quarry at the Lodge in Sandy, Beds!
It would appear that the vast majority are on thier way now though :(
Thanks for your comments though, its good to keep tabs of where they are. We need new members of the community to report sightings across france and further south etc! That would be great to have a blog of visible migration!
Cheers
Lloyd
Unknown said: I had a regular flight of some twenty swifts that screamed over my Clapton (London) home, then a fortnight ago, I noticed the crowd had swollen and almost doubled. Two days later, the skies were silent and empty. I miss them already.
hi we have more swifts than i have seen for a long time i live not far from the humber in a very rual village
john witty voulntter at bempton cliffs and love it stil 15 years now
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.
As we move through the universe may we leave as light a touch as a butterfly wing on the fabric of the environment.
Well, Flutterbies9, I'm hardly a fount of all knowledge but I understand that Swifts sleep on the wing and do not roost. Once they are hatched and fledged they stay on the wing until they are mature enough to have families of their own (about four years I heared one TV presenter say !!!!!!). Their 'feet' are set very far back on their bodies for 'clinging' but not roosting and they do not 'walk' very easily.
I think, quite possibly, you are seeing the bats not birds and certainlly not Swifts. I copied the info below from the internet just now.
''The swift is a medium-sized aerial bird, which is a superb flier. It evens sleeps on the wing! It is plain sooty brown, but in flight against the sky it appears black. It has long, scythe-like wings and a short, forked tail. It is a summer visitor, breeding across the UK, but most numerously in the south and east. It winters in Africa.
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Because of the length of the wings and shortness of the legs, most swifts (with the exception of very few strong adults) are unable to take off from a flat surface. Regardless of age, a swift is unable to pick food from the ground, and is reliant on being fed.
Hence, once grounded, they are trapped and doomed to death. As such a young swift gets only one chance to become airborne. If all goes well, it will fly non-stop until it returns to breed.''
Hope this is interesting and helps to answer your questions.
PS sorry about the gobble de gook part - that happened 'cos I typed in Word then copied and pasted the text here and for some reason the software just doesn't like that ! :)
Thanks for your very quick reply Cirrus but I had also checked the RSPB site and had therefore checked out the differences between the swifts and swallows which is why I am aware there are both around here.
BTW, I do now realise that my earlier post was misleading in that it could easily be misconstrued that I thought the swifts were roosting in the trees as were the bats. I do not know exactly where the swifts come from or go to, nor do I know where the bats actually roost! Though I said the swifts favoured the trees, I did not mean to imply they were roosting in them, rather that is their favourite area to show off their aerobatic skills and make lots of noise, all of which is a good two hours or so before the bats emerge from somewhere around the same area of trees. The swifts tned to stay around telegraph pole height and higher; the few swallows do not make a noise when they are flying around, often about the same time as the swifts, and seem to like to sit on the telephone wires 'for a rest'. The swifts seem to fly off in a different direction (inland towards the Quantocks) to the swallows (over towards the west coast) though.
I doubt whether the bats are roosting in the poplars either but they do come here from somewhere in that same direction and must be fairly close by as they do not have a huge range. The bats are small, completly soundless and come extremely close and very low, well below telegraph pole height.
I do think there is a 'conspiracy' to favour the three poplars and that area of trees for the local wildlife populace though! Even the woodpeckers go from our suet ball feeder to the telegraph poles and then the poplars before disappearing further afield! Perhaps these well established poplars have a large insect community that the birds and the bats both favour. Well, that is a theory anyway, but don't know how accurate it would be.