First swifts arrive in Gilling East!

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/

Some swift behaviour-7th May

Swift coming in to roost at high speed, tilting as it swerves around the blossom festooned apple tree. 6th May- 8.17pm. Our first swift visit of 2024.

First spotted flycatcher of 2024 and swift and house martin blog

While walking around the lawn gazing skyward in the hope of seeing swifts or martins this morning, I heard a single quiet ‘seep’ call. Immediately I said to myself “spotted flycatcher”, yet this would be early? But there it was atop a beech tree. It called again and gave lovely views as it sang and surveyed its new surroundings. Could this be the male that bred 150m away from our garden last summer? Well I’ll have to wait and see whether this is a passage bird or a local, but for now what a wonderful start to May!

Spotted flycatchers were one of the first birds I studied and drew in depth. They used open-fronted nest boxes in our Hungerford garden and loyally caught insects above our lawn summer after summer. Sadly this is a species that has disappeared in plain sight and one which I feel extremely fortunate to still be able to see. But each summer I wait with bated breath, half expecting that the flycatchers won’t return. All that was forgotten in the moment and I enjoyed the understated elegance of this beautiful and increasingly scarce summer migrant.

Swifts and house martin blog

A single house martin arrived and settled in Tolly’s bedroom window nest early on the morning of 26th April- he was first to spot it! It was so cold on 27th April that it spent the whole day in the nest and left on 28th April. It hasn’t been seen since. There have been no more visits to any nest so only one of twelve breeders last year has put in an appearance. I am used to seeing the first real influx of house martins in May but many other colonies are reporting good numbers of returnees already. For now I must hold my nerve and hope for an arrival soon.

Nothing more to report on the swift front. A single bird circled the village low on the evening of 26th April but this bird certainly hasn’t roosted in any of our nest boxes. Interestingly France, Spain and North Africa have seen low temperatures and unsettled weather in very recent days, which might be holding some birds back? Even today as the UK basks in warmth, much of western Europe has rain and temperatures well below average. Current weather models show a lot of unsettled weather to come over what we assume to be swift migration routes but not the persistent strong northerlies that caused such havoc last May. I would think if the longer term weather models prove anywhere near correct this May looks much closer to average so hopefully colonies will build up far quicker than they did in spring 2023.

It is nearly 20C as I write, yet not a single visit from a house martin today, thus I have to conclude that last year’s breeders (from our colony) have not yet arrived. The first swifts are scattered around the UK, but they are still very much the tip of the ‘iceberg’. However it is worth checking your nest box cameras each night now- returning swifts are often very quiet if they arrive alone and easily slip into a nest site unnoticed. A good time to look for them in the air is between 6-7.30pm when they often circle prior to roosting as the air cools. 

It is currently peak blackbird song time. I have always associated the lovely rich fluty notes of blackbird song with my first swift sighting. So make the most of blackbird song too and enjoy the anticipation that the beginning of the swift season brings.

All text and images copyright Jonathan Pomroy 2024

My annual exhibition is at Gilling East village Hall over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend- 4th-6th May 10am- 5pm daily. For more details please see this link https://jonathanpomroy.wordpress.com/exhibitions-2023/ 

Spotted flycatcher- Gilling East, 1st May

House martin first visiting artificial nest cup- 26th April.

22nd April- first swift! With Arctic terns and a little gull at Castle Howard Lake.

I had an unforgettable three hours birding at Castle Howard Lake yesterday afternoon. I found an adult little gull in full breeding plumage as I arrived at the western end of the lake, with 13 Arctic terns to the east of the lake. Over the next couple of hours there was a very high flock of 40+ very vocal Arctic terns some of which descended to join the feeding birds. However most circled and moved on north. The maximum number of Arctic terns seen at one time, some low, some high was at least 70. I suspect more moved through but at times I didn’t know where to look!

I felt very privileged to find this gull. I’ve not seen many but this was an immaculate bird in full breeding plumage, a gull on passage set to move east back to the continent. I was juggling viewing time between the gull and the terns. I saw one common tern with the Arctics. The little gull fed throughout, not landing while the Arctics occasionally sat on the water and bathed. Both species were feeding on insects which they effortlessly plucked from or near the surface of the water.

A swift appeared, a swift (!!!), my first of 2024- it moved east to west about 70 feet above the lake amongst the hundreds of sand martins and smaller numbers of house martins and swallows. The temperature was 7C and my hands were almost too cold to draw in the bitter breeze and light drizzle. The swift as always came as a visual shock to my eyes, that shape again, subject of thousands of my sketches, its blade like wings paddling the cold air. Its streamlined body looked quite fat as its feathers were puffed out to insulate it against the cold, just like a Christmas card robin! But there it was my first swift of 2024.

I was not surprised, an impressive first wave of swifts has been powering up through France in recent days. These early birds are very much the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and in some ways they gamble when determined to be first back. North Yorkshire can and has thrown some very cruel weather at aerial insect eaters and once ‘home’ the swifts will be tested in their survival skills after enduring a long, fast, energy sapping migration. I may have to wait days before I see another now, but my 2024 swift season began with a swift flying over a little gull and a flock of Arctic terns. This inland, would be a juxtaposition of species hard to repeat.

After the swift, I spent some time taking in the Arctic terns again. I downed my sketchpad, put away the camera and just appreciated the elegance of these birds. In many ways they out graced a swift (particularly a cold one!) with their pointed wings and long tail streamers. Their flight was buoyant, bouncy almost and their control as they dipped for insects breath-taking to watch. As an artist I found the context of the terns interesting because I was seeing them against the fresh green of trees in spring, rather than their more typical coastal backdrop. The higher flocks above, some of which just passed north without descending to feed, were equally graceful, seen in silhouette; all the while their calls brought back memories of family holidays in Anglesey, Northumberland and Scotland where I have seen then breeding. With the little gull still on view this was one of those birding sessions where you really don’t know what to look at, so I made sure I spent good chunks of time observing each species.

At about 6pm, the swift lost to view, a band of quite heavy drizzle moved in quickly coating my optics and myself. The little gull purposefully flew to the east end of the lake and spiralled quickly upwards moving off east as it did so, quickly lost to view. At the same time all the Arctic terns vanished up into the cloud to continue their journey north. They have journeyed from the sea off South Africa or even Antarctica and are heading perhaps for the Farne Islands, Scottish Islands or the coast of Scandinavia or Iceland, thought to be the longest migration of any bird. Here they were as they crossed land downed by this cold weather but giving me one of the most memorable afternoons of birding of my life. Migration in full flow- utterly inspiring. I am still buzzing with it all and it makes this the first Swift Blog of 2024!

All text and images copyright Jonathan Pomroy 2024

My exhibition in Gilling East village Hall is on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

When: 4th-6th May 10am- 5pm daily

Where: Gilling East Village Hall

Admission: free

Dozens of original watercolours, many unframed. Prints. Cards for sale. Sketchbooks available to view. Display and information about attracting swifts and house martins.

For more information see 2024 EXHIBITIONS

Arctic terns, little gull and swift in flight.

First swift of 2024. Castle Howard Lake.

Swift below Arctic tern flock