hi Helen,
thanks for inadvetantly reminding me that i had forgotten to post my first
swifts for the season seen up here on the Cairns coastal plain!!!!
on Sunday 26/02/14 at 6pm i recorded my first migrant swifts here for the
season. there were literally thousands of Fork-tailed Swifts with a few
White-throated Needletails amongst them - numbers were impossible to ascertain,
by if i were to hazard a guess, i'd guess-timate possibly a minimum 5000
fork-tailed's, & i actually counted 20 needletails - the flock was spread over
3kms & at varying altitudes above me, with the highest barely visible without
my bins...
i was riding my mountain bike home from work & i could hear the lowest of the
birds calling - they made quite a racket...
the flock was from McGregor Rd/Cook Hwy roundabout, Smithfield, north to
Trinity Beach foreshore - an amazing arrival indeed !!
amongst the swifts were a great deal of Aust Swiflets, White-breasted
Woodswallows & Welcome Swallows, our usual hawking locals...
this is a pretty late mass arrival - the big flocks normally get here late
December most years, sometimes as early as first week of December, & this is
the latest i've had them through here in numbers in 18 years living here...
i apologise for this late posting (sorry Mike!!).
cheers Martin Cachard, Cairns, 0428 782 808
> Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 02:07:13 +0000
> From:
> To: ;
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Fork-tailed swifts
>
> We saw our first Fork-tailed swifts for the year yesterday, over the farm
> behind us here at Wongaling Beach (FNQ), about 12 mixed in with 12 Australian
> swiftlets.
>
> Then we went down to Tully Heads sandspit at the mouth of the Hull River to
> see what the big spring tides had done and saw about 500 fork-tails, at
> least. Just an estimate based on their constant loose stream going south
> along the coast, some flying high and some close to the river; we counted 100
> going south in one minute, then concentrated on the shorebirds (a fisherman
> kept putting up the terns and sharp-tailed sandpipers, sandpipers left after
> two flights); swifts stopped coming after about 15 mins. We saw a few extra
> fork-tails go over as we drove out but did not stop to count.
>
> At Hull Heads we had 8 Fork-tails go low over our heads as we were standing
> on the sandspit (other arm of the Hull River mouth).
>
> No swifts of any kind this morning, more howling wind all rushing to join the
> low off Karumba I suppose.
> Helen
>
> <')//////==<
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