sorry make that date 26/01/14
> From:
> To: ; ;
>
> Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 18:01:45 +1100
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Fork-tailed swifts
>
> 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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