Spent 2 hours at Hermitage on Sunday and 45mins yesterday - not as good a result as Enda had - well done. Wheatear seem to be gone (3 males, 2 females on Sunday, none Tuesday).
Anyways the point being - the numbers of swallows passing due North. It averaged c.5 per minute while I was there. So, with say 15.5 hours of light per day, I'd estimate approx. 4,650 passing hermitage per day. Is there any info available on the swallow movements eg. coastal v's over land, and the probable destination of the swallows passing Hermitage. Can we assume they are all going to Northern Ireland, as they don't breed in Iceland, or could some branch off Eastwards and travel up the West coast of Scotland?
The other question I ask, why do they travel singly or in very small groups? Surely there would be more security in larger numbers. Perhaps they left Africa in larger groups but these split up as they travel North?
Any ideas or opinions.