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When do your swifts first arrive by you?

FireFire Posts: 19,096
in Wildlife gardening
I put up some swift boxes last summer and am very much hoping some will come and make their forever nests here this year. Once they choose a site they return to it each year. I am told that playing swift calls (on a loop on Youtube) will encourage them to swoop down to investigate. I plan to hang a speaker from my bedroom window. When do you first sight yours? I am told the last week of April is usual for the UK.

Thanks
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Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    🌱
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    something flew around yesterday: swift, swallow or housemartin I know not which.
    Devon.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I've never seen one around here until at least the first week in May. Last year it wasn't until June but all the hirundines seemed thin on the ground last year.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I'll be scanning the skies.
  • Jolly Gary the GardenerJolly Gary the Gardener Posts: 133
    I am expecting the first sighting of Swifts to be around May.Its great to watch their fancy air show they give us over our garden.Lovely time of year when they arrive

  • Rhubarb7Rhubarb7 Posts: 14
    our birdwatching friends at the BTO track sightings in the BirdTrack website and app. The average arrival dates are listed here   https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdtrack/bird-recording/by-migration-season/spring-migration  but  from what I can tell everything is a bit early his year and certainly earlier than last year after the v cold beasts. 
    this is interesting too - just came across it https://eurobirdportal.org/ebp/en/#home/HIRRUS/r52weeks/CUCCAN/r52weeks/ 

    Can’t wait to see them, and hear a cuckoo too! 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited April 2019
    Thanks so much @Rhubarb7. It looks like they have arrived.

    @ImpatientGardener I'm not sure what I'd do with myself if I had a nestful of dying swift chicks. We have sturdy boxes, which will, no doubt, outlast us all.

    London doesn't get cuckoos any more.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Early swifts have arrived here. Only a few but the rest can't be far behind.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I have been scanning the skies.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    🌱
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