Cuckoos, swallows, swifts and other migrantory birds.

2-3 Hobbys on Sat and Sunday – We get them every year but such an exciting bird to watch – especially then there 5 or 6 up at the same time in late summer

4 Swifts hooning around over Salisbury just now. It’s great to hear the sound of summer again!

Swifts arrived a day late. Arrived yesterday, but almost always arrive on 5th May, like clockwork. Thought they might have arrived early given how warm it was a couple of weeks back but then the weather turned cold again.

Nesting in the eaves/rafters of my house already. Annoying, cos it’s right by the bedroom and they are ear piercingly loud.

Heard my first cuckoo of the year on Gower this morning

There were a couple of reliable sightings of an osprey in north Gower over the last few days

Really?  I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled….any idea where (more specifically)?

TwodogsFull Member
There were a couple of reliable sightings of an osprey in north Gower over the last few days
Really?  I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled….any idea where (more specifically)?

That original sighting was near Broadpool but there were more sighting around Cwm Ivy area last weekend, and also one was seen on the other side of Swansea at Crymlyn Burrows, near the mouth of the river, a few days ago. The same person who saw the Crymlyn osprey was also reporting 3 cuckoos calling at Pant yr Sais nature reserve.

That original sighting was near Broadpool but there were more sighting around Cwm Ivy area last weekend

Cool…I’ll keep an eye out.  I go past Broadpool probably every other morning.  Seen Red Kites and Buzzards, but never anything I could think was an osprey.

What I think is just one cuckoo* again this morning, I was up on Cefn Bryn at 6am, and it seemed to be in the trees just south of Oldwalls…which, strangely, is where I managed to get a photo of one about 15 years ago

* I mean, definitely a cuckoo, but only one

Definitely four, possibly five, swifts here in Shifnal this evening. They’re not screaming yet but they’re charging around in between more fluttering flights, so it’s only a matter of time before the sound of summer starts up. I love ’em, me

First swift this evening, quite high up in Hurstpierpoint. Downloaded swift call  MP3 from swift.conservation.org this afto, so speaker going up tomorrow.

Only problem is one swift box is currently occupied by starlings – this year’s brood making their first airborne adventures this evening

If you want to download an app that you can get slightly obsessed with, then I’d recommend  Merlin ID

Just leave your phone mic on and It identifies birdsong and let’s you know what you’re listening to and gives you lots of info on the little feathery things. We have it running pretty much constantly when we’re out walking

A few swifts and house martins back in the Dark Peak over the last day or two.

Swifts over Pembroke now. I started playing calls to attract them towards my two new boxes and within an hour had a fly-past by one, close enough and for long enough for a shit photo!

4 then zoomed around for a bit but didn’t come close. Tomorrow is another day to lure them in!

First swifts of the year arrived overhead at about 8pm this evening  about 10 miles inland from Scarborough in North Yorkshire. Saw the first swallow about a week ago but no regulars since. The swifts nest locally, some in our roof, so normally once they arrive they are a constant presence until the autumn.

I have been enjoying the arrival of swallows the last couple of weeks here near Helston , Cornwall but also a large number of red kites this week joining a healthy number of buzzards. 😊

We’ve been enjoying cukoos, wheatear, arctic tern, pink footed geese, (think) dotterel,  black tailed godwit, whimbrel, puffin (migrant?) and sand martins….

Plus of course the resident golden eagle, hen harrier and a load of corncrakes including one hiding under my camper at 4.30am this morning as I got up for the ferry… The poor folk in tents must have listened to kkkkkrk kkkkkrk all night long!

And a bazillion other residents too common to mention…

After saying I hadn’t seen any a few days ago. That night on a ride the swallows and martins were out.
They’ve stopped beating around the house as we’ve got a long straight hedge that has a couple of buildings at one end. The sparrows nest in the hedge and a sparrowhawk uses the buildings as cover for an attack run down the hedge line. It happens so fast that you usually just see the puff of ex-sparrow.

I heard a couple of cuckoos (or maybe one cuckoo in two places) at Swinley today.  Not part of the brief but I also saw my first live woodcock up close which was cool.  I need to do more evening rides at Holmbury now the weather has improved to try and hear this year’s nightjars…such an amazing sound.

I walk the dog up on some local moorland where there’s a distinct order of sightings. First the Curlews, then a good number of Larks, then a pair of Wheatears that always appear on a certain stretch of the track. This week has been a bit of a jumble as the Lapwings are now displaying in numbers, a pair of Sandpipers has reappeared at the reservoir edge, Meadow Pipits and Willow Warblers plus a few Marsh tits….. the place is really livening up. I’ve been watching a family group of Roe Deer up there too. There’s been a couple of adult does, each of which seem to have a yearling follower, but a week or so I spotted a buck taking a bit of an interest.  He stood off for quite a while before the does wandered off, but the next day I had the binos with me and he’s clearly an older buck, dished grey face and antlers are going back, so he won’t have many more seasons left to do his thing.

The grouse are making a bit of a comeback- they were pretty much decimated by some wildfires up there a couple of years ago, but they seem to be establishing a few coveys now. I also saw a snipe yesterday, so the recovery is more or less complete now.

@Scapegoat, whereabouts are you?

Western edge of West Yorkshire, Scapegoat Hill. The moorland I’ve described is Slaithwaite Moor around Cupwith Reservoir.

Went up a bit later today and there were fewer folk around, so I was treated to a “wader extravaganza”. First off I heard a snipe but couldn’t see it, then could hear two sandpipers but couldn’t see them either. There were two pairs of curlews on the far side of the reservoir, and as I was watching them a pair of Oystercatchers flew across and landed on the water. They aren’t up there normally so I guess they were passing through. On my way back to the car the Sandpipers put in a low level water skimming performance before landing and bobbing around on a small sandspit and I heard a snipe drumming. There was a pair of them  putting on a fantastic courtship display which was mesmerising, especially as the skylarks decided it was time to do some background accompaniment, with three within a couple of hundred yards of us. That was topped off by the Oystercatchers doing a semicircular flypast with all the noise they make. Felt utterly privileged.

One swallow a summer does not make… Today I saw a swallow in All Stretton.

Swifts just arrived yesterday. The house martins are still nowhere to be seen

One of the ospreys is back above Loch Tay – one circling and one on the nest visible.

Just started seeing the swifts around over the last couple of days, maybe they were just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit more for the insects.

On Sunday I headed out with two objectives:

1 – hear the cuckoos that had been spotted in a local nature reserve.

2 – spot the osprey that had been seen a few days earlier at the mouth of the river a few miles further on.

Objective 1, I walked up the side of the canal, fen on the left, for about 50m before I saw a cuckoo displaying in a tree about 50m ahead of me, the first one I’ve ever actually seen. I had a quick walk around the rest of the very small NNR, saw the cuckoo again and quickly headed towards objective 2 on the beach….. where I failed to see any bird of prey at all. Harriers, buzzard, owls, kestrels, merlins, all sorts in this area normally, but on Sunday nothing but skylarks, meadow pipits, stonechats and whitethroats. and a man who complimented me on my hat! 😀

Swifts came back yesterday. Wonderful sight and sound.

BUT……

camped out in North Wales forest edge on weekend and heard and saw my frst ever Nightjar. Magical. Apparantly they are the last migratory bird to return to the UK each year.

Welshfarmer – Nightjar and Woodcock are still on my ‘must see’ birds, I’m so pleased for you.

On the tandem as a stoker, I’m able to look around and noticeable by their absence are swallows. Hardly any in the fields or over rivers and ponds, where a few years ago their were hundreds. The storms over the last few years have not helped these birds.

On the tandem as a stoker, I’m able to look around and noticeable by their absence are swallows. Hardly any in the fields or over rivers and ponds, where a few years ago their were hundreds. The storms over the last few years have not helped these birds.

That’s curious. I’ve seen loads around here lately. (And also seen and heard more cuckoos than ever in my lifetime!)

Swallows nesting in our porch which we’ve not had before. They are always around in the summer but previously nest elsewhere. Assume we’ll get a heap of droppings but otherwise they are very welcome. Won’t be shutting the outer door for a while then!

Stopping in a flat attached to a house in St Abbs. The lady has got at least eight swift boxes up and there have been at least twenty swifts screaming around the house at times. I witnessed one actually going in a box and one on the floor. I left it where it was and eventually it managed to fly off. They’re a wonderful, spectacular sight. Lots of martins, as in hundreds below one cliff too, sedge warblers, reed buntings, whitethroat also identified first with the “Merlin” app and then visually. Fantastic!

Spotted an osprey on my lunchtime dog walk yesterday, just perched above the river near us. Rubbish photo, as I was about 150m away. (the river is just our of sight, behind the dead tree the bird is perched on).  We’ve also got loads more sand martins this year than I can remember.  There’s a big section of sandy river bank just below this point, and there must be dozens of little nests burrowed into the banking now.

I managed to spot the osprey in north Gower. My wife said I got more excited than she’d ever seen me. 😂

apologies for all the blur, this was taken at 5am so was very dark, gambled on the rapor-head gimbal meaning i could get the head sharp even if the wings had motion blur!

taken at Horn Mill Trout farm

Curlews by Clearwen reservoir today. And another solitary swallow. The weather is horrible here at the moment 😔.

@dakuan that’s very good….what did you shoot that on and what iso? Looks pretty sharp on the phone.

Could always look at topaz ai sharp or noise filters to crisp up if soft at higher Res….

its on a sony mirrorless, iso 12800, put it through DXO pure raw, find topaz does too much

So swifts have been around a bit for a few weeks, but in the last couple weeks they’ve really put in an appearance – the northerly winds obviously discouraged them, but this week they are here with screaming parties of 10 plus.

Some slightly flaky pics…..they aren’t so dark in lightroom

Yes the swifts have been more noticeable here in furthest NW Wales.

I normally see a group of about 6 flying just feet above our balcony but last night there was a group of around 12 or 15…. Super happy about that!