birding-aus

Fork-tailed Swifts at Werribee, -- any House Swifts?

To: "Edwin Vella" <>, "BIRDING-AUS" <>
Subject: Fork-tailed Swifts at Werribee, -- any House Swifts?
From: "Mike Carter" <>
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 00:03:38 +1000
When Joy Tansey reported 500 Fork-tailed Swifts at Werribee today, Edwin
Vella asked

>
> You sure there wasn't a single House Swift amongst them all?
>
> Edwin
>

Well maybe not but I have had three reports of possible, probable and 99%
certain House Swifts from SW SA and SE VIC in the last two months! Both W-t
Needletails and Fork-tailed Swifts have been prevalent in the region this
summer, a daily sighting in some places.

On the weekend of 26-27 Feb, Bob Green believed he may have seen three
unaccompanied House Swifts near Rennick on the Mt Gambier to Dartmouth Road.
He was driving at the time and the birds had disappeared by the time he'd
stopped.

Shortly after that Bob Hughes was watching swifts over his garden at Lismore
when he noticed some smaller, stub-tailed swifts accompanying them which he
considers must have been House Swifts.

But best of all, on 18 March, Rob Farnes saw House Swifts, a bird he knows
well, (99% certain), three times at Mt Clay near Heywood. They were with W-t
Needletails. Attempts to photograph them failed. At the same site in early
April he saw up to 400 Fork-tailed Swifts, twice as many as his largest
previous flock in the Portland district.

Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mt Eliza    VIC     3930
Ph:  (03) 9787 7136
Email: 

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