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| This is a sketch showing the Swift activity on Thursday 16th July 2015 during observations made by the group. Click over sketch to enlarge |
Tuesday 21st July 2015 - Swifts leaving the UK and heading South
150 South over Bury Area (Manchester) (2hrs pm)
220 South West over Painswick Beacon, Gloucester (4hrs am and pm)
Monday 20th July 2015 - Swifts sightings in and around this area
0745hrs A party of 13 moving East over Sandylands School, Heysham.
0815hrs and teatime saw over one dozen over near Morecambe Golf Club (could be locals)
0945hrs 3 Swifts low over Clawthorpe Hall.
1115hrs 8 Swifts screaming in follow my leader fashion, flying low and over and in and out of the buildings at Clawthorpe Hall.
1500hrs One Swift seen to into nest on cottages near to Post Office. It is a already recorded nest site.
Sunday 19th July 2015 - Just small amounts of Swifts leaving today
401 South over Barmston/Fraithsthorpe, East Yorks (Over 4hrs am)
Saturday 18th July 2015 - Swifts moving South especially in Yorkshire (Vismig watches)
2872 Moving South at Long Nab, Burniston, North Yorks (over 7hrs mainly am)
2298 Moving South over Barmston/Fraisthorpe, East Yorks (over 5hrs am)
874 Moving South over Hunmanby Gap, North Yorks (over 4hrs am)
Thursday 16th July 2015 - Off Main Street, Burton In Kendal, Cumbria. 2000hrs to 2115hrs
We met as usual at the Memorial Hall. In attendance was Reg, David, Mary and Paul, and myself. We checked out the regular sites. We started by counting the birds in the sky which at that time was just nine, but later in the watch we counted a total of 28 birds. Most birds tonight were flying low. It was very windy.
The first nesting activity was on the front low elevation of the Royal and we witnessed two separate birds going into two sites. No sooner had they passed food then off again, probably the changeover of food was only two seconds.
We moved further down to the Coach House and the Manor House, we saw one bird leaving the front elevation site on the Coach House, also we were lucky enough to see a bird using one of the sites on the gable end of the Manor House.
Without doubt we saw the most activity in the skies since the beginning of the weekly watches.
David mentioned that he had again been witnessing birds coming into his yard, which seemed as though they were prospecting sites for next year on the rear of Reeder House.