The Lincolnshire Bird Club

every year we seem to have a thread that relates to late Swifts but we tend to overlook the mass departure of the bulk of our birds that clearly go well before the stragglers; this year there were still 300 over Barton town on August 7th and at least 200 on the morning of the 8th all of which gathered in a tight flock and disappeared south at one stage but at least 70 were still around later in the day; on the 9th I did not get a good count being away for most of the day but by the evening of the 10th appeared to be eerily quiet over my garden with no screaming overhead -- down the pits there were only 4 Swifts amongst 2000 Sand Martins but just before darkness 20 birds appeared over the garden giving a last screaming display before the start of their long journey.
Today theer appeared to be a marked passage of House Martins, the first I have seen for weeks, with Sand Martins still on the move but very few Swifts

Having enjoyed (seemingly) large number of swifts screaming over Louth in past weeks, in the past few days it has gone very quiet, with prolonged observation yesterday evening (accompanied by a bottle of wine) showing just a handful scattered high above the town. As I look now, none to be seen.
Bon Voyage!

Geoff

Just seen one from my bedroom window, heading SW!

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still 70 over Barton on the 13th; does anyone else have any counts showing actual departure dates of the bulk of a local population?

Similar activity was observed over my part of Cleethorpes on Sat 10th, no accurate counts but good numbers in tight flocks wheeling high above, the majority of which obviously departed later that day/night, a max of only 10-12 birds seen daily since.

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Regards, DJB. http://bradderscleebirding.blogspot.co.uk/