Tuesday 9 June 2015

Swift Spotting


Earlier today I took it upon myself to scout my town for Swift colonies, this summer bird has captivated me ever since my early days. My very first bird field guide stated that this small blade-like winged bird could sleep while flying and would only land while at their nest, such facts fascinated me at an early age but it was years before I sighted these blackened sky slicers for myself.

Reading about the birds of Killarney National park in a publication of the same name I was dismayed by the apparent low breeding pairs in the park back in the 1980's standing at around four pairs residing at Killarney house at that time.

It was a cloudy school day and I was out in the schools pitch half heartdly participating in some sport or activity I didn't care for when I heard a series of unusual schreeches approaching from overhead at speed from the cathedral, moments later my eyes caught sight of the small streamlined birds enroute, they were too big for a swallow or martin and flapped their sharply edged wings with less frequency than the latter and former species, by using my powers of deduction and factoring in the fact that these screeching birds were coloured black there was no doubt that I was watching my first swifts wizz by! in all (if I recall correctly) there was about thirteen which thankfully is a vast improvement in about twenty years by some margin.

Back to today I went for a spin on the bike around various spots around Killarney to see if Swifts were present. Starting on the hill lingering above Fitzgeralds stadium and then down to St Columbanus's where I took all of the images displayed in this post. Six birds were definitely present but there was likley to be more as I was watching the one side of this widespread old stone building. There was a nest site or nest in development by a gutter and two birds whixxed past me by a couple of centimeteres at one stage! Its hard to describe the speed these birds travel and swevel at so just try to imagine a giabt, hyperactive swallow. Needless to say its a tricky job trying to follow and photograph swifts, who for the most part fly at high altitudes but I was fortunate today at my first attempt at capturing these birds on the wing.

After counting (as best I could) the swifts around St Columbanus's I cycled into town wgere I could hear swifts in numbers over head being masked by the cencrete environment. The highest numbers I encountered were near the town centre where 8 or more birds were circling high up near the direction of the sun which made counting harder.

Based on todays first skim over look at some the swifts of Killarney they seem to be faring well with some 26 birds across four distinct areas but there may well be more locations I've overlooked.
I have some ideas that will be of benifit to this African migrant in the town but it may be awhile until they might become a reality, regardless the numbers encountered today were well above what I had imagined in areas I wouldn't have considered but this was a preliminary scouting excercise that will likley be of benefit for any developments in the near future.




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