Is that photo of a swift really 150 metres distant? No wonder people can get great photos these days…… It could be drinking or snapping up insects on or close
to the water.
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Monday, 21 January, 2019 1:17 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] A little birdwatching anecdote
On Saturday morning I found myself at the popular larkwatching venue of (you might guess) Parkwood Road. Contrary to what you might have thought, this is some distance from where I live, although many COG and chatline
members, including Roger Williams whom I found there this morning, dwell in that general vicinity. On Saturday I met by chance Lia, who had travelled a distance equal to my own, and had just concluded from the large number of people at the West Belconnen dog-training
facility that the famous lark spot must be a bit further along the road. However, I digress.
Lia and I commented on the occasional swift that was flying over, Lia, with the advantage of younger eyes, being much better at picking these up than I was. At about 0830 we were at the roadside looking south at the stock
dam that has been mentioned before on this chatline. Lia commented that 2 swifts could be seen descending to the water to drink. As the waterhole was about 150m distant, I could just see through my viewfinder the flicker of a tiny dark shape against the
water, so I took a couple of snaps of the waterhole to see what I might find later. I didn’t look at the result until this morning.
One of the snaps is below, showing an identifiable swift, its head inclined as if drinking, or about to do so. I have inset another blurry shape from another snap, perhaps the same bird or its companion. Watching all
these drinking swifts on a hot morning gives one a thirst, satisfied soon after at a coffee outlet at the conveniently situated Kippax shopping centre.
