Saturday, June 10, 2006

Alpine Swift

hi there
i doubt if anyone here will know me because i have been keeping a low profile birderwise and have only really come to light because of this sighting and the need to share it.
the sighting was yesterday (9th) evening along sowerby road near the cricket pitch. i was travelling parallel with it in my car (which made for an exhilarating ride!) and got within 10 metres of it as it was following the road for a large section. the car behind didnt know what on earth i was doing and ws probably getting very irrate!
unfortunately i got the impression it was passing thru as it was not feeding- but you never know! going up there today just to check. i hope someone else can catch it as it is a spectacular bird - good luck!

ps
look forward to meeting some of you

5 comments:

AndyC said...

there is one old record of Alpine Swift in Calderdale from 1872 when one was caught in Ripponden.'irvine Morley 's vertebrate fAUNA 1965.

This is a Description species so look forward to seeing it.

jasonov said...

good grief- i'd love to have seen how they managed to catch it!had a good look round today with no joy

Nick Carter said...

Andy you should have already received it as it was circulated it as soon as I got it. I'm away for the next week so suggest you contact Nick D as he also has a copy.

Andrew Huyton said...

Jason in which direction were you travelling at the time?? Went up in that area as soon as the news went out but to no avail.

jasonov said...

andyh. the bird was on the right hand side of sowerby road making a beeline for sowerby (roughly southeast).like i said, it looked like it was on a mission.just wondered if there'd been any reports from other districts/counties?