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Around mid-afternoon on Saturday (21st May) a group of 10 Swifts were feeding over fields and a farm reservoir to the north of Back Lane, Dunston. For a moment my heart skipped a beat as I caught a brief glimpse (of what appeared to be) a swift with a white rump. Getting the bins on the bird in question it actually transpired to be a Common Swift with a small white belly patch, and continued to show well for the next 10-15mins.
It had a fairly square cut white patch on its underside extending from the rear belly to the start of the vent area and extending upwards onto the lower flanks. Essentially it appeared as a mirror image of what one would expect to see on one of the white rumped swift sp. The bird was structurally identical to Common Swift with no other plumage anomalies so there was no doubting that it was ultimately an aberrant individual of this species, but a striking and interesting individual nonetheless.
Matthew
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