We had a perfect evening for our Wild Marlow Swift Walk on Monday 30th June, celebrating Swift Awareness Week – hot weather, meaning that there was plenty of swift activity 💚
We met at 7.45pm when it was still very bright and sunny. With the sky so blue and clear we got good views of high-up swifts, over several streets in the centre of town.
During our leisurely walk, with plenty of stops along the way, Catherine gave us lots of details about swifts’ lives, nesting and breeding characteristics, migration routes and population status as a Red-Listed species in the UK.
Big thanks to Bob Keene from the Bisham Nest Box Group who was with us and pointed out a swift nest box on a building. Bob described the different configurations of box available and showed photos of what they look like inside. Catherine brought along samples of two types of swift nest brick that can easily be built into new buildings.
Swifts love to join up in their spectacular screaming parties as sunset approaches and, with such good weather, we had fantastic views of groups of swifts swooping down to zoom around buildings where some of them are nesting. It is so exciting at that time of evening to have the opportunity to watch them much closer to, as you can really appreciate their sheer speed and very long wings! We were lucky in spotting several entering their nest sites under eaves in the blink of an eye – an exciting first for several in our walking party!
Some of us stayed on until after the 9.25pm sunset, as the swifts were taking advantage of the good weather and the remaining light to do a last bit of feeding in the air. We were also treated to a lovely crescent moon with swifts flying in front of it. Thanks to Jon Perry for some great photos! After the breeding swifts had returned to their nests for the night, we were delighted by a final ‘swift hurrah’ of the evening – a group of 20 or so non-breeding swifts gathered in a typical tight group spiralling upwards until out of sight to spend the night sleeping in the sky.
Thanks to everyone who came – it was a great evening! 💚
📷 Jon Perry
