Swifts!

Sunday saw my trainer, Paul Noakes and I opening the nets in his garden ringing site at the bright and early time of 04:00. Birds were slow to come in at first and things didn't really pick up until Paul's new trainee Richard arrived just after 05:00. Each net round, however, saw a steady trickle of common passerines with an emphasis on Blackcaps, Goldfinches and Great Tits. The majority of birds caught were recently fledged youngsters with young goldfinches clearly having already learnt where to find nyger seed.

The highlight of the morning came when Paul decided to attempt trapping adult Swifts in order to recover their geolocators fitted in the summer of 2010. Paul has quite a few Swift nest boxes of several designs fitted to his house with the most popular being the Schwegler Swift Box No16 which has a louvred front and is made from wood concrete. Last year Phil Atkinson and Chris Hewson of the BTO came and fitted geolocators to Seven adult Swifts from Paul's colony and because the light data is stored on the device the birds must be re-captured and the device removed for the data to be read.

When the geolocators were fitted the adult birds were lifted from the nest towards the end of the breeding season. This year, however, it was felt that it would be safer to catch them as they left the boxes for feeding flights. Hand held nets mounted on telescopic poles were held over the nest box when a Swift was seen entering it after which a lengthy wait ensued whilst the adult feeds the young. Upon exiting the box the swift is trapped in the net which is lowered for extraction.

Paul has already employed this method to capture a couple of adults carrying geolocators and this morning another two birds were re-trapped, processed and relieved of their harnesses and geolocators. Given that two adults are visiting each nest box it is not always possible to ensure that the bird being targeted is carrying a geolocator so it was a pleasant surprise to find that one of the birds caught wasn't a tagged bird and thus needed ringing. So a new species was added to my list and it was a real privilege to handle a bird that is surely one of the masters of the air.

Adult Swift Apus apus

Totals - 86 new, (14) re-traps
Swift - 1, (2)
Wren - 8
Dunnock - 2, (1)
Robin - 5
Blackbird - (2)
Cetti's Warbler - 1, (1)
Whitethroat - 2
Blackcap - 11, (1) including 10 juvs. 3J
Chiffchaff - 7 all 3Js
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Coal Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 6
Great Tit - 19
Chaffinch - 3
Goldfinch - 18, (6) including 17 3Js