2012 Swifts

I saw my first Swifts this year over Hyde Park on 26th April. Plenty at RSPB Rainham Marshes today, including this one :) There are still none around the regular nest sites near where I live in NW Kent though.

Good news, Paul! Do you know where they nest? Hopefully NW Kent is their next stop......!

But sounds like the weather is going to go downhill again - last year my local pairs disappeared for about 10 days when the weather was particularly cold and wet, straight after they had arrived.

Let's really hope for a better summer for them this year.

Final count - seven spotted before they disappeared at dusk.  I couldn't see where they were nesting, but the only obvious site nearby is a group of old farmhouse buildings in the park unless they're just using eaves in modern housing.  They come back every year to exactly the same spot, usually 20-30 later in the year.  The council put up a few swift nest boxes under house eaves nearby last summer so it will be interesting to see whether they use any of these.

Sounds like you've got a mini-colony there, Paul. As I understand it, they do indeed return to exactly the same spot and nest year after year. And that's what makes them so vulnerable - if their nest site gets destroyed by people putting in loft conversions, for example, it's very difficult to persuade them to take up a new site.

It's quite exciting trying to find their nest sites - they're so speedy that if you blink you can miss them as they zoom straight up under the eaves into the roof. But once you've got your eye in, it does get easier.

It's really good to hear that your Council is doing something for them.

Happy swift spotting!

Lovely!

How many have you got?

Sounds good!

Greenbird...I live in central W.Yorkshire & am paranoid about their security.If you think you can recognize the location from piccy in my gallery,ANYBODY,I will delete it.They nest in a disused building opposite my little home.Not worth counting until they`ve all regrouped & settled.I usually count them in after sunset(my pic is just the back!) & will have a good idea of how many breeding pairs in a month or so.Hoping for more than 10 pair this year.Its a sod trying to work out how many kids there are at the end of the affair...but there were a few failures last year.Do you remember me posting a picture of an egg that had been kicked out of the nest - due to food shortage?

Anyways,I want to send 40+ back this year.

Have been following them off and on for over 40 years so have had chance to build a good picture of their social behaviour.They have lots of fun btw but its mainly of the `showing off` variety. :-)

Have loads of gaps in my knowledge.Love pictures of them but cant glean much from the glossy mag-style piccy.Would love to hear members` accounts of how the birds`go about their daily routine.......wish this thread was a sticky...got seriously lost last year... :-)

edit. The Polish birds are back btw.  http://jerzykionline.pl/

Sounds like they are heading north, still not seen any in Sunderland.  Usually hear them first, maybe 3 pairs, then its a wait to see if ours return to our eaves.  We had the soffits and eaves replaced last year and i had to recut the gap for them, i was hoping they would not refuse the new entrance, they were fine, straight in and breeding again :)  We have had them for about 23 years that we know, so would they be the same birds or maybe new ones?

EB - really interesting to hear about your colony and how wonderful to have so many! And I do remember your post about the egg from last year. Really hope for a more swift-friendly summer this year, but it's not looking great today here........ Like you, I don't really know much about how they spend their days. In my area there are 3 pairs (I think) but their nests are isolated from each other over a wide area. I would imagine that these are all that's left of a large local colony. Sad. Anyway, I see my nearest pair regularly (when the weather is ok) flying about the area - and I assume that they spend most of their time feeding, as when the weather is poor, I see a pair regularly over the nearest river. And I think it's likely that they are my local pair, as there are so few locally. Sometimes, in the evening, they meet up with the 2 other local pairs - socialising I'd say - and do a bit of chasing each other about. I'm really hoping that we can try to establish a new nest site in my area, to try(!) to build up their numbers. But I'm not optimistic that it will be possible. I'm also going to try to find the other two local nest sites, but it's going to be really difficult.

Davey - hats off to you for making your repairs swift friendly - brilliant! And you must have done a really good job, cos they can be very sniffy about re-using sites that have been altered. Congratulations!

They have returned in good numbers to my local flashes during this week.