I live in the New Forest and have been concerned at the low numbers of Swallows and Martins I have observed this year in the Forest. I have noted also the complete absence of swifts over Lymington town where they are usually quite plentiful. However, this morning whilst walking my dog in the forest, I was amazed that the sky was full of swifts. I have never before seen them in this area which is open forest. I have only ever seen them over Lymington town. In fact even in other parts of Europe (eg Italy, France and Bulgaria) I have only ever observed them in urban areas and not in rural areas!
Mike McKenna - New Forest.
I have only just recently gotten into birding - this is my first summer- and I must admit one of my favourite sites is seeing all the swifts fly overhead on a summers evening - I am lucky in that where I live (North Norfolk) we have them, literally everywhere! There's nothing nicer than sitting in and garden in the evening watching them!
Nikki x
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nix107/
Hi Nikki
Welcome to the fourms .
I know what you mean . Thats all I did this evening ... Apart from plant some corn seedlings . I love just sitting with a cuppa and watch the swifts Dive about the sky. Way better than watchin TV.
Cheers
AL
If its no fun Yer no doin it right!
when giving my son and his family a lift home to the ravenswood estate in ipswich a couple of weeks ago (in the early evening), we were amazed to see almost every inch of this newish estate covered in swifts. there were literally thousands of them. my interest in birds is quite recent so i don't know alot about them, so whether they were just taking a break from a journey or whether they were nesting there, i don't know. all i do know is that it was an amazing sight (and very loud). I reported this sighting on the rspb swift inventory. it is awful to know that swift numbers are declining and i would be grateful for any pointers as to whether there is anything i personally can do to help to reverse this situation.
Hi Mike
Your swifts over the forest will be where the best place is for flies at that time. They will travel a long way for food. No doubt they are still nesting under roofs somewhere, even if it isn't Lymington.
Andy
Seriously thinking about trying harder!