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Small fast flying bird
This is really not a gardening question at all but I wonder if anyone else has seen this fantastically fast small bird in their gardens. This little bird appears every single year in May at dusk every single night. It never lands but flys acrobatically up and down the garden with such speed we almost can't see it. It dips and dives and changes direction from south to east so very quickly. It stays about 15 minutes and then dissapears. It is so fast we cannot see it to identify what it is. I wonder if anyone knows what it is! It comes every night until mid September and then it must migrate to somewhere warmer.
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Sound like a bat to me
In the sticks near Peterborough
That does sound like typical bat behaviour to me Jay. Can you see colours or is it always in silhouette?
Does it do it silently or does it make a lot of noise as well? Can you hear it before you see it?
Not swallows or swifts? You would know by the wing shape.
Why are you so sure it's not a bat?
Your description is exactly what I see every night at the same time during the same months.
In the sticks near Peterborough
The flight pattern you describe Jay doesn't fit any bird that I know. The sudden mid-air changes of direction all say 'bat', as does the not landing. Upper canopy warblers such as willow warbler and chiffchaff certainly fly from tree top to tree top, but at all times of day and probably less so at dusk.