From this viewpoint the distinctive features are the dark underside and the long, scythe shaped wings. Their flight is characterised by fast, frantic wingbeats followed by long genteel gliding. Our swift recording page gives more detail and photo comparison. Most are first spotted around the end of April or the beginning of May. The best time of day to look out for them is early morning or dusk. They hunt for insects high above the ground. You are more likely to see them around their preferred nest sites of rooftops, ventilation shafts or church towers.
Swifts are monogamous, meaning they pair for life with their breeding partner. They are also loyal to nest sites which they return to for up to 15 years. Swifts produce one brood of two or three eggs each spring, which they lay two or three days apart.
This ensures successful fledging of at least one chick as it spreads out the demand for food and allows for insect fluctuations. Record first swift seen.
Swift arrival is usually more predictable than winter departure Photo: North East Wildlife. Swifts are a suitable species as they are found in urban and rural settings and can be easily recognised.
We have a lot of records, dating back to , so it is important to collect current first sightings for comparison. Swifts used to be far more common. Their conservation status in the UK has moved from 'Green' to 'Amber' in the last 10 years due to population decline and a reduction in the areas they are found to both breed and over winter in. A lack of insects their food source , a lack of nesting sites and climate change have all been cited as reasons for swift population numbers and distribution has reduced.
In terms of phenology - the timing of natural events - spring and were both considered to be very early years. This helps us know if the birds are returning, if the colony is stable and if the site is still in use. For more information on UK birds, click here. Watch Now! Results of the Nation's Favourite Gardens Competition Illuminated gardens to visit this Christmas. Autumn tree colour: Why do leaves change colour? Autumn planting at Chelsea Flower Show. Citrus trees orange, lemon, lime : Plant profile.
Skimmias: Plant profile. Hylotelephium ice plant : Plant profile. Then, at 9. The second nestling remained in the box being fed by its parents until the 8 th August when it also fledged at dusk. It had a number of abortive visits to the nest entrance where it tilted forward into the hole but then scrambled back, breathing heavily, and then did some wing exercises. But at 9. Our nestlings fledged at dusk whereas Lack and Bromhall both reported that most nestlings in Oxford fledged early in the morning.
Once the nestlings had fledged their parents continued to occupy the box, regularly returning each night. Lack commented that the parents normally remained after their broods have left. The number of days they stayed was affected by the weather over the summer.
Thus, after wet summers, they would stay for an average of between days but one pair stayed for 26 days. However, in fine summers the average was days after their brood fledged. He suggested that they stayed so that they could feed and rest and put on fat to act as a reserve on their long journey south. This fits in with the fact that Swifts leave later after bad summers when food would have been less plentiful both for them and the nestlings they were feeding.
Bromhall also drew attention to the fact that in Oxford the quality of the food available to them decreased at the end of the season. So, meals sampled in July and early August contained very few beetles Coleoptera whereas in one sample obtained at the end of August, out of insects, were beetles. However, in Scotland, particularly in Argyll! Could it be that, although they are normally found close to the ground, they may possibly be carried up in air currents to the height at which Swifts collect their food and provide more nutritious food later in the season?
It was noticeable in Kilmichael Glassary that when their chicks fledged both of the parents in the box with the camera looked a bit out of condition. Their feathers lacked the sleekness of earlier in the year. But it was worrying that one bird also looked particularly slow in its movements around the box.
When in the box there was a lot of mutual preening and wing exercises. During August there were frequent screaming parties of between birds. Compared with its mate this bird was still in poor condition and I noticed that on the first couple of nights after its mate left it was very restless and during the day it came in and out of the box many times.
Similar activity was recorded by Lack The weather deteriorated over the next few days and the remaining bird could not get out to feed so much. When in the box it spent a lot of time preening itself and regularly did wing exercises Fig. Most of the time its presence was now much less obvious as it slipped in and out of the box in silence, so without a camera in the box it would be easy to think that it had left. We were in the garden at dusk on the evening of 3 rd September, not having seen any other Swifts since 29 th August, when at least 3, and probably 5, Swifts circled round high over our house.
Then, at about 7 am on 4 th September, I saw 2 Swifts flying in an easterly direction up the Glen. Were these Swifts from further north passing over our house as they migrated south, or were they birds from the local area that had been roosting in their nest sites building up their fat reserves prior to migration?
Throughout the next week the weather was wet a lot of the time, but there were some spells of warm sunshine, and the single Swift came in and out of the box frequently and did a lot of wing exercises. Its plumage was now much sleeker and it was moving around the box with as much ease as Swifts ever do.
0コメント