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| Rough sketch of Swifts nesting sites for 2015 as at June 18th 2015 |
Tuesday June 23rd 2015 - Milnthorpe Church Green - Swift Watching 1015hrs to 1030hrs
Observing Swifts heading to nest site somewhere on the South side of the Church. Counted no less than 20 Swifts high above the square. When I looked more close there was a Sparrowhawk soaring in circles right in the middle of the Swifts.
Thursday June 18th 2015 - Swift Watching off Main Street, Burton In Kendal 2100hrs to 2215hrs.
The weather was dry yet still had that cool edge. At first we found it very difficult to locate any Swifts, the skies seemed empty and this was more or less the situation throughout the watch, however on going around to the individual nest sites we were then able to locate just the odd birds returning to their respective nest sites.
Tonight there were four of us, Myself, Reg, David and we were joined by Karen of Kendal who had also come along to observe our Swifts and who is also thinking about getting a group going over in Kendal.
Although we never saw any birds returning into Cocking Yard, we have been informed by Jane that the regular pair on "Hangings Farm" are back and she thinks they could well have young.
We moved on to the Royal and whilst there we saw our first swift of the evening returning to its nest site. The small hole of the three holes on the rear annexe. This was another new record for us this year although the site has been used for at least three years as we know of. Two further new sites were also recorded on the front of the Royal were we also saw a Swift enter one of the old established sites, but again a new record for this year. We were also advised by David that he had earlier in the week seen birds going into another of the old sites further along on the Royal building (lower elevation). So this makes the Royal offering at the moment to six individual sites.
Moving on to The Coach House, and we saw a bird entering on the corner of the gable end side which is again another brand new site which has never been recorded before.
From our position we could also see clearly the gable of the Manor House and another pair of birds were seen to enter a small hole and very close to a old established nest site which we registered as being used only last week. Although this site is very close within inches of the one recorded last week, we do feel that perhaps that it is a new site. Prior to second bird going into the nest site there was several visits where the bird would go close and hold the wall for split second before coming off and going aerial yet again and would return doing the similar thing again and again before actually seen to enter the nest site. This now brings the Manor House birds up to three separate sites.
Even closing to dusk the skies still seemed void of birds, just a couple where seen occasionally. Where had all the Swifts gone?