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Dispersal of Common Swift - UK (1 Viewer)

Hauksen said:
The overview graph I posted is based on the maximum group size of swifts per square of the "TK25" topographical map, per 10 day period.

That should be pretty resilient against irregular reporting, except perhaps in very sparsely populated parts of the country.
Click to expand...
Hadn't noticed that (of course).
My immediate next question is "How did you do that?" but don't burden this thread with that information!
While you're at it, if you'd plot the maximum group sizes against the TK25 coordinates, you might be able see if the average moves north or south and east or west through Germany.
 
Hi,

Xenospiza said:
Hadn't noticed that (of course).
My immediate next question is "How did you do that?" but don't burden this thread with that information!
While you're at it, if you'd plot the maximum group sizes against the TK25 coordinates, you might be able see if the average moves north or south and east or west through Germany.
Click to expand...

It's a standard report in ornitho.de, just hidden a bit in their weird menu structure. (Look for "raster" something.)

As it's a standard report, I don't think there's a way for someone outside the ornitho.de team to create the report you're suggesting - though it certainly would be an interesting one!

(ornitho.de doesn't really do "citizen science" in my opinion, as they're not really making the data available to mere citizens.)

My original reason to look at ornitho.de was that a couple of years back, they linked to another site that showed animated maps for the migration of European bird species all over Europe, which would have been perfect for this topic. Unfortunately, I didn't find that link again.

Regards,

Henning
 
Hi Andy,

andyadcock said:
Noticably all gone from my part of Nottingham three days ago.
Click to expand...

Just two outside at the moment, after a couple of days absence, having a mini screaming party by themselves.

And when most of Germany experienced massive thunderstorms last Friday, I saw one swift taking shelter from the pouring rain under the protuding roof.

20190802_164558s.jpg

I've never seen that before!

Regards,

Henning
 
Hauksen said:
Hi,

It's a standard report in ornitho.de, just hidden a bit in their weird menu structure. (Look for "raster" something.)

(ornitho.de doesn't really do "citizen science" in my opinion, as they're not really making the data available to mere citizens.)
Click to expand...
Found it, thanks. And I agree wholeheartedly... Still, it's better than nothing!

My last local Swift was on Thursday 1/8 (was away on Friday/Saturday).
 
Hauksen said:
Hi Andy,



Just two outside at the moment, after a couple of days absence, having a mini screaming party by themselves.

And when most of Germany experienced massive thunderstorms last Friday, I saw one swift taking shelter from the pouring rain under the protuding roof.

View attachment 701573

I've never seen that before!

Regards,

Henning
Click to expand...

Henning, That's a House Martin.
 
andyadcock said:
They do hang on in coastal sites it seems but disappear from inland sites.
Click to expand...

I think the explanation here is more that they arrive later than further south so they stay later too. Not too sure what happens at inland sites in Scotland though.

Around 70 Swifts were over my street yesterday evening, which probably included some dispersing birds as well as locals. Quite a lot this morning too, just as the bad weather arrived.
 
Andrew Whitehouse said:
I think the explanation here is more that they arrive later than further south so they stay later too. Not too sure what happens at inland sites in Scotland though.

Around 70 Swifts were over my street yesterday evening, which probably included some dispersing birds as well as locals. Quite a lot this morning too, just as the bad weather arrived.
Click to expand...
In Northumbs at least, they often arrive a few days earlier inland; not surprising, as the coast is slow to warm up next to the still-cold North Sea. Conversely, inland cools down earlier in the autumn, while the coast retains the heat stored in the sea over the summer.

Likely though that the distance between inland and coastal feeding areas is well within a Swift's normal feeding travel range though, so coastal breeders will fly inland to feed in spring, and inland breeders down to the coast in late summer. So that will even out the timing of breeding a bit.
 
Still good numbers of Swifts over my street this morning. I presume they're still waiting for young birds to be ready to migrate. I expect they will depart over the next few days though.
 
This is the first recent evening that I haven't seen any Swifts over my street. Numbers over the past week as follows:
19th: 45
20th: 20
21st: 17
22nd: 16
23rd: 12
24th: 6
25th: 3
 
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