Monday 27 April 2009

There was quite a strong wind today and no swifts were seen, neither did I go cycling today. So I will tell a little bit about how I came to watch swifts.
As recent as 2006 I started with watching swifts. Before that time I have once seen a swift crawl into a nesting hole.
It started with me taking one lecture about swifts, martins and swallows, because I could not keep them apart. On our local yahoo mailing list for birds I have read many times of one guy inventorising their nest holes and after the lecture I wanted to cycle past his house, it was even on my way back home. When I approached his house I saw a swift fly into a wall and disappeared. I met LP and he showed me the young chicks in his observation box and gave me a book to read, “Swifts in a Tower”.
It started me off and in 2007 the Environmental dept of the city supplied nestboxes for free and even hung them.
You can see the entire process if you click here.
In 2007 I played the sounds of Erich Kaiser once in the morning and once in the evening, all 79 minutes of it. On the 19th July 2007 at 13:10 I saw the first swift crawl into one of my nest boxes.
In 2008 I had a pair in the nest boxes. They were such a pair! Both came flying in and only one can go in, the other will fly a circle and come back and fly in another nestbox. Some nights they did stay in the same nest, some nights only one came in, but every night I stood on the street and watched I saw at least one came in. Will there be a nest this year?
There are many swifts in this area. Most houses were built between the two World Wars. My own street was planned in 1901 and my house was planned in 1923 and built before WW II. Old houses, old eaves and lots of cracks and openings for swifts. Once I climbed up the university library tower and when I looked down I could see why it was so easy for me to attract swifts. From our biggest colony to the neareast water supply it is a green “belt”. The Pope’s College is almost connected to Park Abbey with trees all the way. I live somewhere in that “belt”. From the street you cannot see how many trees there are in the gardens behind the houses.

Apus College is right of the trees of the city park.

The white building is Phillips with the Abbey just behind it.

Last year I spent long days on the bike searching for nesting holes. Soon I learned how to look for the swoop before they fly into a nest hole. Many hours I stood in drafty streets to wait for one to fly into a nesthole so I could be sure.
I found a lot of them.

The best natural nesting hole I ever found.

Sunday 26 April 2009

You could not look out the window today or go outside without the sound of swifts or see them circling and enjoying the freedom of the sky. In other words, they were stuffing themselves with all those insects which were kept low because of all the clouds.
Heavily overcast I did not think there will be many swifts around, but there were!
On the lists there were two posts of persons in Leuven who saw groups of up to 50 circling above the city. I feel sorry for the people who have not seen them yet and count myself lucky that I live where they are early and abundant already.
Just before 7:00 pm I left and cycled to Phillips site, but above my garden there were more in the sky than above Phillips. So I checked out the street where LP lives and there I counted up to 12 swifts in the sky. Going into town I saw about 20 to 30 above Tiense Poort. I have always heard and seen that huge numbers gather there. This group can consist of the swifts from above LP's house as well.
Above Herbert Hoover square there were again a large group, but not more than 30. A slight drizzle started and I did not spent much time at Apus College, but did see on the Deberiot side one fly into nesting hole B8 and one into B9 at 7:25 pm.
So far I have seen one fly up to a nest and I have seen two go into nests, of which one did that twice.
Then I came home and above the garages next to the prison there were a large group still flying in the soft drizzle that was falling.
For a while I stood outside, hoping to see mine fly in. Wishful thinking maybe?

Common swift arrivals of the past few days

Not only are they seen in Malaga, here are some numbers from bird countings done of migrating birds in Holland and Belgium.
Zeebrugge - Fonteintjes
23/04 - 1
24/04 - 693
25/04 - 3320
Breskens (Holland)
24/04 - 350
25/04 - 3566
To follow the arrival of swifts in the UK.
Look here

Saturday 25 April 2009

When I woke up this morning I could see swifts flying while I was still in bed. Four of them were flying in front of my window, but by the time I was dressed and went downstairs, they were gone.
I was not out today, but great news came on the Swallows-martins and swifts yahoo mailing list that thousands of common swifts have passed through Malaga and are on their way up to us. Soon the skies will be filled with them.
Swifts come in waves, so far we had only the advance fliers and not yet the big group. The weather forecast is not so good for tomorrow, but that is tomorrow. Then we just read a poem and wait, because somewhere someone is looking at the sky and seeing this season's first.
I'm looking at a webcam somewhere in Holland where one has entered the nestbox.

Nedda's song from the opera Pagliacci (1892)

What a fire in his glance!
I lowered my eyes for fear
That he read my secret thoughts.
Oh, if he ever caught me,
Brute that he is! But enough of that,
These are mere fearful and idle dreams.
Oh, beautiful mid-August sun!
And I, bursting with life, languid with desire,
And yet not knowing what it is I long for!
(looks up at the sky)
Oh what a flight of birds, what clamour!
What do they seek? Where do they go? Who knows?
My mother, who foretold the future,
Understood their song and even so
She sang to me as a child.
Hui! How wildly they shout up there,
Launched on their flight like arrows!
They defy storm-clouds and burning sun,
As they fly on and on through the heaven.
Light-thirsty ones, avid for air and splendour,
Let them pursue their journey; they, too,
Follow a dream and a chimera,
Journeying on and on through clouds of gold,
When winds blow and storms howl,
They challenge all with open wings;
Neither rain nor lightning daunts them,
Neither sea nor chasms, as they fly on and on.
They journey towards a strange land yonder,
A land they've dreamt of, which they seek in vain.
Vagabonds of the sky, who obey only
The secret force that drives them on and on

- Leon Cavallo:

Friday 25 April 2009 - they're back again

A well deserved decor for seeing my first swift of the season going to a nest.

In the late afternoon I got a sms to tell me LP has spotted swifts at Phillips. It’s open skies there and you can see far. LP was working in his garden when he heard them. In his eagerness to see them he crossed the street and was almost run over by a cyclist. It’s time again to look at the sky and sense the street.
At Phillips we didn’t see anything anymore and we both eventually left. On my way home I cycled past a chipshop and the smell made me realise how hungry I am, but I left in such a hurry when I got the sms, that I forgot my purse at home. It’s all quite close together and I quickly went home. Crossing the Ring (motorway around city) I saw one swift circling above my street. Yeah!! I saw one!
When I cycled down my street I saw two more a bit further above the houses. I checked the other streets, but to no avail.
There were other people before me at the chipshop and I kept looking out at the sky, when suddenly I saw a swift low almost between the trees. My first thought was it came from Patricia’s house. It was beautiful, I could almost see it’s face with the afternoon sun on it.
It came back and I saw it flew up to Geldenaaksevest 82, a adres known to me. It flew right up to the nest and then came back and flew out of sight.
My day was already fine.
I didn’t plan to go to Apus College (Pope’s College), but I could not go either after my fantastic sighting earlier on.
When I arrived there at about 19:30 I already saw two in the sky above the college. More arrived and I counted as many as 9. I decided to stay till they either disappear in the sky or go into nestingholes. At least one will be of those nesting at Apus College.
Just after the big bell at the university library chimed for 8pm I heard the first "srie-srie" for this summer. It was a sweet sound.
They flew without haste, circling, turning and eating their bellies full. Two of them were almost playing together. One of them made a V several times but they never connected.
Finally three of them flew much lower and they start flying at the building to swerve away just before the nests. It was time for them to fly in, I did not wait in vain.
At 20:55 they came in. One flew into nestinghole B6 and two flew at nestinghole B9 - one entered but the other one turned away. He or she tried 6 times, but each time just before it must enter it turns away. I don’t know why? Is it a young bird, lured there by a older inhabitor of that nest? I did not see it again and from the nestinghole there came screams, but it did not last long.
I am happy.

Thursday and it's quiet

Since Sunday I have not even seen one. They disappeared from the sky, no calls, no birds, nothing.
The ones we saw must have formed the advance fliers.
Someone told me when there is a eastern wind they will not yet come. It is a cold wind. On the other hand, the day was sunny and warm, but not too warm either. It is only 17°C at 5:30pm
I'll wait.

Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 April 2009

“They’re back!”
Those few happy words. Now it all can begin.
While in Switzerland I read of their approach on the lists and I wished for some cold wind to hold them back till I’m home. Saturday morning I came home and still there was no report from LP that he has seen them in our hometown yet. Since I have been away for a while, all my kids came round to say hello and it was almost by nightfall that I could get away to the Pope’s College or renamed to Apus College.
A slight drizzle were falling and I realised no swifts will be seen today.
On Sunday it was the christening of my granddaughter and my phone was not far from me all day. You never know.
In my son’s house there is a natural nest and I warned everybody sitting near the window to keep watch.
At about 8:30pm the call came, LP has seen 4 at Park Abbey and soon after 2 over Phillips Buildings. I was already at Apus College then and a few minutes later I saw the first one over the college. It was making a large sweeping turn over the college with the freedom only a bird can have in the air. Then it flew out of sight and was gone.
Soon after LP turned up, but none was seen again.
They’re back!