The 2011 season is open!

The anticipation is over, they are back!
Lately the mailing lists were buzzing with the first sightings of the Common Swifts returning. I admit to being a bit jealous when all around me sightings of swifts appear, you almost feel blind.
Monday at dusk I went to the Abbey. There are wide open fields and the noise of the city is much less, so it's a great area to spot birds. Nada!
Yesterday I stayed at home and for sure LP saw his first swift/s, so I had to go out tonight.
The best place is still the Pope's College, where the biggest colony for Leuven is situated, so there I went tonight. Pope's College
The best time to go look for them is just before dusk. A swift needs to see where its nesthole is located. It is not always the best visible spot on a wall.
I arrived at Apus College at 20:00 and decided to stay till 20:45. My expectation was that I won't see anything, then 45 min is a long time, but that's what I usually spent in watching a suspected nestsite.
At 20:20 I had a flash sighting. It was such a quick sighting, I could just make out that it was a swift before it disappeared behind a tree and even though I moved round I could not see it. 5 Mins later I saw another or the same swift. Now it was gliding through the air, a great sighting! I have seen my first swift of the 2011 season.
The Pope's College which is not a college but a dorm for male students, has a big courtyard where the most swiftnests are. Usually I stand on the side of Deberiot street. There are also a number of nests. Standing here I saw my first swift tonight and shortly after it has left I saw 4 more swifts.
To keep watching them I switched to the courtyard where I eventually lost track of them. With the idea that the evening went quite well, I walked back to Deberiot street side where my bicycle was. Just before I reached my bicycle I noticed two more!
It was getting better and better.
Being on the outside of the college I watched them circle above it. They came lower and lower and then went down like an arrow, first the one and soon afterwards, the other. I can swear they went down to their nests.
Tomorrow I'll take up position in the courtyard!

Collegium Veteranorum - 14 Mei 2009

Collegium Veteranorum.
The Veteran’s College is to set the first step in supplying the swifts with nests fitted for them and for them only. In an old city like Leuven ( the university is older than that of Oxford) there are many old buildings belonging to the university.
The buildings are old, they are high and they need to be renovated. That’s why swifts love them. There are many holes that will supply them with cosy homes and they took advantage of them. In the Pope’s College there is more or less 30 nests and the Pope’s College is to be renovated in 2010.
On most of these old buildings there are holes just under the eaves where they used to put the poles to support the scaffolding to work on the roofs. All these holes are covered with plates and all kinds of fancy things to keep birds like doves out, because of the mess they make. Sometimes there are open slits where swifts fit through and they nest behind the block or whatever is in the hole to close it.
When they started with the renovation of the Veteranorum, Louis-Phillip (our local swiftophile) suggested they close these holes with a block, leaving a slit open for swifts to nest in and the architect came up with a drawer-like thing, which can be pushed into the putlog hole. On the outside the hole is covered, but it has a open slit of the size swifts prefer as opening for their nests. Problem solved!

Today 36 of these holes were supplied with their “drawers”!

My swift is back on 7 May 2009

Today they are back in their hundreds. Everywhere you go there are swifts in the sky.
The weather is much better and at 8pm tonight it was 19°C in my garden.
Earlier today I was at my front door and I saw the first swift of this season flying low through the street. It is not unusual to see them fly through the street at breakneck speed, but so far this season they were mostly high above the houses. Seeing the swift this low, means that there are more swifts now. Maybe the screaming parties are back.
It’s not easy to be such a novice in the world of swifts.
Tonight I started cycling early-ish. On my way to Pope’s college I cycled past a old church. At first three of them formed a screaming party round the the church and when they came back they were already with five of them, with two trailing behind. I stopped to watch them. When I look up in the sky I see swifts everywhere. All the way here I already saw many swifts play.
At Pope’s College I saw them fly up to nests, fly past nests, forming screaming parties. In one screaming party I counted 12!
With the changing weather there must have been a second wave of swifts arrived today. From the Pope’s College I went to another site where we saw many last year and on my way there I cycled past Ladeuze square. It a big open space above underground garages, where it is market every Friday. Now there was a group of people learning some kind of dance. On this square there is a huge needle with a beetle pinned on it. It’s a work of art, it does depend on what you consider artistic.
The dancers were intent on their dancing and above them, four swifts were circling around the needle with the beetle, screaming loudly when they make their aeronautic turns.
When I got to the city archives and I saw how many swifts were all along my way and also there, I realised there is only one nestbox I must look out for tonight ….. and that’s my own.
Lately I almost got depressed when I saw on the yahoo lists how all the swifts came back to their nests. If I have a couple this year again, I stand a good chance of having a breeding pair, but they have to come back.
At 8:30pm I was watering my rose at my front door when one swift past my head very low. I just knew it, it’s one of my swifts. But I was not sure. You can never be sure with them, you have to see them go in or leave the nest and even that they do with such silence.
I took up my position across the street. Tonight I will wait till it’s dark, I must be sure.
At 9:05 pm I saw my swift return to it’s nest! I can tell you, at that moment you feel you can do cartwheels or a little happy dance. Now the swift season has started for me too. Last year I saw a swift go into that nestbox only the 20th of May.
What a joy,
What a pleasure,
What fun,
watching birds in the sky.

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.