Wednesday, 1 January 2020

Swift, Marloes Mere

From David Ord: Quick visit to Marloes Mere just after midday gave good views of the ring necked duck and scaup from the car park and also the northern hide. Walking back to the car park my attention was caught by a very quickly flying bird with long, sharp wings, hawking over the car park. A swift! Somewhat surprising at this time of year, I revisited my mental files of possible confusion birds - small hawks etc and discounted all. It was indeed a swift, which continued to hawk over both the mere and the car park allowing very good views against sky and land. I first spotted it at 13-05h and watched it for 10 minutes before it was time for me to leave. It was still flying over the mere as I left. A candidate for the earliest swift of the year?