Swifts gone, Winters on its way again. (1 Viewer)

[alan_rymer]

My local ( they nest next door, used to nest in my house ) two/three families of Swifts left yesterday afternoon. No more summer evenings watching and listening to the 14 birds screaming low down between the houses.
A little of my Summers enjoyment has gone.:smoke:

 

[Gill Osborne]

It's awful, isn't it :-C

The past couple of days have had hints of autumn in them with the robins out the back 'ticking' and the dunnocks calling :smoke:
The singing birds have gone quiet too without my realising it and now the only bird I hear is a greenfinch in the big sycamore opposite.

We still have our swifts here though and I heard them screaming away this morning. Don't think it'll be long before they head off down south though as the past few evenings have had large groups flying high and making a right racket!

I'll have to dig out last year's diary and see when the last swifts were seen in Alnwick.

 

[Stoggler]

The sound of summer gone already. Shame they are late arrivers and early leavers to/from these shores.

Being located on the south coast I get to see and hear them longest - at the moment I've noticed big groups of swifts flying together high up (talking groups of 30+ birds) in the evenings, I assume they're en-route south and just stopping off before crossing the Channel

 

[JTweedie]

Still plenty of swifts around my area, although I've never known anywhere that they nest. Plenty of waders are on the move now.

 

[Brian2]

The Swifts are screaming well over the garden this evening in Essex.

 

[Monahawk]

Plenty of swifts still about here, though winter never really left. A really miserable summer weather wise. Surprised the swifts tolerated it.

Si.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Swifts should still be around for another couple of weeks in my area.

CB

 

[Peewit]

Please do not let hope go with offspring.

I was witness to a pair of mating Swallows only last weekend ...and yes they had a nest ready for their offspring.

I also noted a couple of Great Crested Grebes nesting with eggs, so that is a start even though it is late is the year

I think due to the wet weather it has put the birds breeding habits on hold - so please believe that not all is lost - just that things are later than normal.

Regards
Kathy
x

 

[Gill Osborne]

I had a worrying half hour this morning whilst writing paper rounds up at around 7am when I realised how silent it was outside :eek!: They've gone I thought but no, ten minutes later I heard that wonderful screaming as three chased each other across the Market Place :t:
Checked last year's diary and the last date I saw them on was Wednesday 17th August. They arrived on Sunday 1st May in 2011 yet this year not until Tuesday 8th May! Perhaps I can hope for an extra few days longer than last year's date because of their late arrival?

Waders are definitely on the move on the east coast now - one local site is checked morning and evening and the number of different species in the space of just a few hours is amazing. Just come back from there myself an hour ago and waders included greenshank, green sandpiper, wood sandpiper and a lot more dunlin than this morning.

 

[Brian Bullough]

Swifts still present at nest site in Northumberland two adults on the right and the juvenile sits at the entrance CCTV on my Blog
http://northumbrianbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/common-swift-cctv_29.html

Juvenile still sitting at the entrance won't be here much longer .
Brian

 

[Stewart J.]

Lost most of our Swifts over the weekend here in SW Northumberland.

 

[Steve G]

Playing around in the sky over West fife villages today.
Hopefully have them for another 10-12 days (usually gone by 12th August).

 

[MrBruce]

Mine left 2 days ago

 

[chris butterworth]

There were up to 20 screaming around West Kirby this morning ( surprising, as the weather is a touch grim). They should still be around here for the first half of next month, at least.

Chris

 

[Seatallen]

Still some around here but not as many as there were. The latest I've seen them was on 16th August but they're usually gone before then.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Still a couple of dozen over my street in Aberdeen this morning. Hard to tell how much longer we'll have them for.

 

[Dimitri]

In my home city most of them left. Yesterday, I saw 4 swifts, but they weren't locals. They flew straight south!

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Good numbers movig through Cheshire at the moment

CB

 

[Gill Osborne]

Still had good numbers belting around the skies above Alnwick yesterday :t:

 

[Brian2]

good numbers mixing with the Alpine Swift in Sheringham yesterday