Swift Enigma Colin Hullis Committee Member, Ipswich Wildlife Group In the absence of our usual events and work parties to report on, the following is how I have spent most of the lockdown months. I have decided that Swifts are absolutely fascinating and utterly frustrating. After three summers avidly watching a pair using one of the three nest boxes fixed under the eaves of my house I am as mystified by their behaviour as ever. Each year they arrive within a few days of 6th May and within a few hours are visiting the same box they used the previous year. During the three months they are here, I watch them flying in and out of the box, but my goodness they are quick, glance away for a second and you've missed them. So I am never quite sure if there is one in the box or not.
Secretary Leila Matata iwg@wildipswich.org www.wildipswich.org Ipswich Wildlife Group is a registered charity, relying entirely on volunteers, that promotes interest in, and conservation of, wildlife and habitats in and around Ipswich.
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Photographing them in flight is virtually impossible as they are not called Swifts for nothing! So the only option is to try and get a shot of them entering and leaving the nest box. This requires hours of patient sentry duty from a vantage point big enough for a chair because you need one! I have spent those hours holding the camera to my face only to blink and miss the action - again. Proof are the dozens of shots I have of the boxes with not a Swift in sight. And as for producing offspring I've no idea. At some point you
would expect to see the parents in and out of the box feeding young but apparently they may only feed the young a couple of times a day, and if the weather is cold or wet and flying insects are hard to find, the young may not get fed for a couple of days. Then when the young fledge and leave the nest, they do this early in the morning soon after daybreak and don't return to the box - so I have no chance of watching that! From the end of July/beginning of August you'll notice groups of swifts making their way south on migration back to Africa. Annoyingly, after going missing for a day or two convincing me that they too have left, my swifts suddenly reappear and go back into and out of their box! This disappearing act followed by sudden flypasts out of the blue has happened several times this year, driving me to distraction - just ask my wife! There is so much we know about Swifts - feeding, sleeping, mating on the wing etc but there are still loads more to learn, so I'll keep watching and being frustrated and fascinated by them. By the way, I am not referring to a pair of birds, as each year there are always three of them together !??? Another enigma!
