There was a pulse of Swifts at the end of April, with the first birds I saw cruising round over Flask Lake at Nosterfield as I headed for a meeting there on the 28th. This was two days earlier than my first bird in 2022, which was way to the south in Cambridgeshire. It was such a thrill to see the birds back here again, scything around and overtaking the comparatively pedestrian Swallows and Sand Martins.
Fast forward to the 30th, I had just returned from putting up some Swift nestboxes in York and I heard the familar scream of Swifts high over our house. Squinting up into the bright sky, six crescentic shapes glided north. Again, this was a much earlier sighting here in Bish than my first last year, which I think were on 9th May.
This was good, but to my utter delight, a pair appeared in the early evening quite low over our street. Could this be our pair? To my astonishment, one of them came straight back into the box! Maybe the male, but I will never know, he spent the night alone in the box, seemingly very content, back in his nest cup. This is a full two weeks earlier than the previous year. He has roosted every night since, leaving about 7.45am if the weather is ok, but lying-in until 10 - 10.30am if it is colder. It is fantastic that one of the pair at least has survived. I am now keeping my fingers crossed his mate will have made it back too.
Here is the male leaving the box one morning last week.
No comments:
Post a Comment