Swifts campaign: the Survey gets underway

Nearly all the dozen or so volunteer surveyors were able to come to The Boot on 8 July, for a final briefing and initial survey of each of the ten areas in the village.  Informal reports indicate that activity was patchy in the extreme that evening, but what Andrew, Laura and I observed is at least encouraging.

It seems that Lady Down View and The Quarry are both often centres of activity although we're not sure how many birds are commuting between them!

​This video of activity last Thursday in Lady Down View is a welcome demonstration of what you might see, if not this year then in future years, in your own areas.

It's best viewed on full screen - click the button bottom right.

• Not much was going on in area A although occasionally 2-4 strayed over from B which appears to be where most of the action is thereabouts. There were at least 8 swooping around in the Quarry/Churchill east end area with at least one entering one of John Lindley's boxes. [[John posted a video on Facebook of a young one he'd raised, fledging on 29 June. This seems exceptionally early, not least given what seemed to be very adverse breeding conditions in April and May - for example, in 2015 I took a photo of a young swift still in the nest on my house on 15 July.] For a while a couple were over the Hindon Lane end of A and slightly to the NE of there but they seemed to be straying away from the Quarry/Churchill. But the previous week, a party of 30-35 were observed over the Churchill/Weaveland road junction.
• No swifts on H but further afield three were seen in St John’s churchyard [nest boxes and a calling system in place] and a couple in the area north of Vicarage Road.
• In area B, there was much activity with a screaming party of 11-14 flying as low as door level in Lower Lady Down View. Also a puzzling amount of activity at the natural nest on the north side of no 23, with birds definitely flying in and out and maybe them or others also flying up to the nest and clinging to the stonework [see video]. Lady Down View has had an exceptional level of what seem to be 'prospecting' activity by young birds in some number, never previously observed.

Please do upload any videos you are able to take maybe on DropBox, so that I can download them for this website. The weather forecast is that we can expect a St Swithun's day switch to warmer, more settled times and this will encourage the swifts back down to what we regard as more normal summertime activity.