Monday, July 12, 2010

Fly Flats and Cold Edge

This morning - Fly Flats
c250 Swifts and 12 Swallows - all feeding over the res'r
2 Oystercatchers
2 Common Sandpipers
1 male Blackbird was unusual at this site - around the boat house

Cold Edge
28 Golden Plover in the fields along Cold Edge Road
6 Lapwings
4 Curlew
1 Snipe
1 Tufted Duck

3 comments:

Jeff Cox said...

I bet the swifts were a sight to see Dave - I've never seen anything like that number at one time. We've had between 4 and 9 Swifts over the house each day for the last week or so - until today when they haven't shown up. I wonder if they were among your 250?!?

David Sutcliffe said...

When I first started birding - 1970!!! I remember (and that's a miracle) seeing thousands of Swifts at Warland/Lighthazzles one summer evening (I will have the date in my notes somewhere??)They were everywhere and whizzing past your head like swarms of flies, all over the res'r and impossible to count, of course. Never seen anything like that since then. Oh to see those days again around Calderdale.

Nick Carter said...

Check out the old HSS reports but i think that late summer phenomenon was repeated to varying degrees in the early eighties? Whilst we don't get numbers like that any more I know there have been large numbers (10,000?) through Spurn in the last few weeks.