Still waiting for our Swifts to return to Sunderland (22 years running), has anyone got theirs back yet further south :)
Seen more this year so far than I remember seeing for all the last few years put together!! Hoping this is good news and means numbers are increasing!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
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Saw my first sight of swifts in Sommerset the second week end in May. Mine got here to Bedforshire 3rd week end in May.
I think they hung around in the warmer South as the weather was cold but glad to see so many returning, more than last year.
I am hoping that your swifts are now getting broody. Ours have been in and out of our hole for a few days now. I absolutely love them and don't tire of hearing and seeing them - especially when they scream overhead at low level!
Never seen a waxwing, :-( but in 2 visits to Titchwell Marsh have seen a marsh harrier on both occasions.
Loads of Swifts here in Lincolnshire - I just hope they are able to nest as a number of properties in my town have been re- roofed since last Summer...
CJ
Ive not actually seen mine go into our eaves yet, but i do catch them all out at dusk and early morning screeching and showing off their speed in the air.
Swifts news item
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Have got about 40 or so gracing the skies near my house. When I take doglet out for a walk, I swear I spend most of the time eyes to the skies, one of these days I'll trip over something!! Am totally in awe of these amazing birds. So sad when they go home.
Swifts returned to my district on 4 May 2012. Not as many as there were 30 years ago, which is how long I have lived here.
I delight in them screaming down the back gardens at roof top level or screaming over my house as I clean my teeth in the morning. That's how I know they nest here abouts but I've never been able to discover where. Until this year ...............
But here in suburbia not a stone's throw away from my property I saw a Swift duck under a roof tile of one of the houses opposite mine. What joy! What did I do first? Yep, that's right. I called the RSPB Swift ''department'' and gave them an address for a Swift's nesting site. A small heap of something white spotted through my 'bins' on the gutter confirmed my sighting.
Hi-
4 swifts over King's Lynn this afternoon
S
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I over Nidderdale this morning
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can