Still swifts about

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Still swifts. Not as in stationary swifts.

 

This afternoon at 4:30 I went to Mt Taylor till about 6:30 (did my usual stroll along the lower west slopes). Very active place for the usual thornbills etc. I saw two swifts - I mean White-throated Needletails - fly very fast westward probably over Drakeford Drive but that was an instantaneous viewing . Then after I continued along the power line track and looked up to the summit of Mt Taylor I could see several more of them. Far away very high and barely visible and they were no doubt using the wind blowing up the side of the mountain to gain altitude and doing a lot of looping flights, very high then dropping down and rising again. Several attempts to count them got me to 6. A few minutes later the group came closer down the west side and I got as many as 18, but even in a clear sky I kept losing them and finding them again, then again some minutes later with clearly many more and much lower and closer, the best count I could get was between 30 to 40. Several more views as I continued back to the car to go home in the vain hope of seeing some from home.

 

Philip