Swift diary
Wow! What a start to the 2024 swift breeding season! Yesterday, the final day of my exhibition, I saw three swifts arrive above the village. I watched a couple of low fast passes past our nest boxes and in the evening a bird from box 2 returned to roost. Another flew up at the boxes repeatedly but opted to roost in the sky or at another nest site? This bird posed questions- if it was one of last year’s breeders why didn’t it go straight in? Are some swifts ‘pulled’ back to the sky when they arrive, having spent nine months roosting aloft? Could it have been a swift from another colony taking a look at ours?
Today (7th) dawned cloudy but reasonably warm. From the outset I saw three swifts in the air, by mid morning I saw the count climb from three to eight. As new birds arrived, seemingly out of thin air, there were spectacular aerial interactions with chases and V wing displays and screaming at times. The weather gradually improved and soon I was watching swifts arcing across a late spring sky of cerulean blue broken only by innocuous white cumulus clouds. I saw a few fast, low level passes too, which always get my heart racing. By mid afternoon our first swift was coming in to the nest box with nest material. Every time I went outside I was able to find swifts flying above me.
If you haven’t yet seen swifts over your local colonies don’t worry. In most years numbers build up over about three weeks in May until the colony is assembled, so there is plenty of time. Also at this stage they can be quiet, just coming in to roost in the evening and leaving quickly in the morning to feed up after their long migration. The best time for any flypasts tends to be between 7-9am here. They often assemble for a while above the colony area at this time before they range more widely to feed.
At 9.08am I saw a hobby spiralling up in a thermal. Swifts were higher still above it keeping a watchful and respectful distance. Hobbys are spectacular summer visiting falcons that feed largely on dragonflies, but also specialise in catching swallows, martins and swifts. Swifts know this and if they have time they fly well above the hobby until it has left their airspace. The flight of hobbys is breath-taking to watch and they possess the ability to hunt in near darkness when they can catch moths and beetles.
The newly arrived swifts were feeding constantly at high altitude.- Sometimes I only found them with binoculars as they were too high to see with the naked eye. But today for me is the day they are back, when they are always there trawling the sky for insects and their calls cause me to drop everything and run outside! I have time to get out my sketchbook and draw those crescent wings again- my life models are back! Soak up every swift moment and bank those memories for the dark, wet days of winter.
House Martins
A very unusual year thus far. We have no house martins back at our colony, or indeed in the wider village. If there were ten nests in the village that’s a potential twenty of last year’s breeders to return. I suspect there is one pair in the main street but that’s it. Normally by now I would expect to see a few pairs formed and some single birds ahead of the first main influx at the second week of May. But so far nothing, not even birds passing the eaves or prospecting. It’s very unusual but not too late yet. The weather has been fine and warm in the main this last week which makes it even more puzzling.
They are probably held up by cool weather in France and Spain a few days ago but even so I’d expect to be seeing arrivals now. House martins don’t show up at migration watchpoints in anything like the numbers swifts do so perhaps their strategy is very different- higher or spread more thinly on a broader front. After all house martins are supposedly far more numerous as a breeding species in the UK than swifts. All very puzzling, but for now I’m holding my nerve and anticipating a big arrival soon- watch this space.
All text and images copyright Jonathan Pomroy 2024
Some of the sketches used in this blog are available to purchase in my shop. Please see link here https://jonathanpomroy.bigcartel.com/
Jonathan Pomroy 
so exciting re Swifts. I have just seen Swifts circling over Bampton Belfry. Hopefully they will investigate a few of the 56 newly installed boxes there!
Love your paintings
Thank you Fiona. What wonderful provision for the swifts at Bampton Belfry! Hope it’s a great success. Keep me posted please and enjoy the season! -) -)
Loved reading about the joyful arrival of tge Swifts. Thank you. All going well down here in Hampshire. Interest and support for Swifts continues to grow. Lynn
I have just been reading your website and blog re house martins, and I too am concerned about the lack of Martins this year. In our village in Dorset we have a regular colony of about twenty pairs nesting in boxes on a couple of houses. But so far this year, none of the birds seem to have returned! The same can be said for the swallows which are normally in good numbers around the village, but so far I have only seen one pair.
Could it be that something catastrophic has happened at their over-wintering sites or en route? I have seen reports of mass nettings of birds in Africa, for people to eat, but not sure these are true. Another thought of course is bird flu….
Let’s hope they have just been delayed and will all arrive in the next few days….
All the best, and I think your blog is great!
Richard