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Swifts have arrived (1 Viewer)

Euan Buchan

Euan Buchan

The Edinburgh Birdwatcher
Supporter
Scotland
Whilst I was Birding yesterday I heard the sound of Swifts in Musselburgh so they have arrived here so that is exciting not seen any Swallows yet.
 
That’s really early for swifts. I sometimes hear starlings making a similar noise - could that have been what it was?
 
That's early!
The earliest ever arrival for Swift in Cumbria, further south, is 29th March in 1998.
The median arrival date is 24th April.
 
No Swifts here yet, only yesterday saw my first Swallows of 2018, (did see a Ring Ouzel near Baggator though).
 
Was at Musselburgh yesterday from 7am until 2:30. At one point there were up to 30 birders there - White-winged Scoter.

Swallow(s?) and Sand Martin(s?) were present but certainly no sign of any Swifts.
 
That's very early for your neck of the woods. There's only been 1 report of a Swift (from RBA) in the UK thus far and that was 1 bird in Lancashire on the 4th.
 
Gordon said:
Was at Musselburgh yesterday from 7am until 2:30. At one point there were up to 30 birders there - White-winged Scoter.

Swallow(s?) and Sand Martin(s?) were present but certainly no sign of any Swifts.
Click to expand...

Were you at the Lagoons? I was at The River Esk and there wasn't any other birders there.
 
Down here in London I used to see the first ones around 10-15 May. In more recent years it's been earlier, around 5-7 May.
 
Euan Buchan said:
Were you at the Lagoons? I was at The River Esk and there wasn't any other birders there.
Click to expand...

Multiple birders along the sea-wall the whole time I was there - looking for the White-winged Scoter. Nobody picked ups Swift.

Not saying there wasn't one but as everybody else is pointing out it's incredibly early for Common Swift in that location.
 
Swifts here normally arrive here around 6th May give or take a couple of days. Not easy to mistake swift calls though, so I wonder if someone was playing/testing some recorded calls. Its becoming common practice to do this to attract swifts to new artifial nest sites.
 
That's interesting, because they have definitely arrived in Leeds. I see at least one on an almost daily basis now. One of them yesterday was flying rather low, so might have been nesting in the area (or looking for a nesting site).
 
owhy said:
That's interesting, because they have definitely arrived in Leeds. I see least one on an almost daily basis now. One of them yesterday was flying rather low, so might have been nesting in the area (or looking for a nesting site).
Click to expand...

No Swifts at work where they are normally in and common by now Hants/Surrey/Berks Border.

John
 
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