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Swallows preparing to leave us

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13

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    #62
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Swallows still passing by, heading due south at the rate of approx 50 per minute.


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    #63
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Martin Easy Chest wrote: »
    Only if they were heading South, and out to sea, in a strong wind. This they don't do. This is why they gather in large numbers and hang around areas - waiting on the correct conditions. 30Km per hour winds are no problem to them either.

    I predict Swallows leaving to sea, from Britain & Ireland, in large numbers early on Saturday 1st October. Air mass is forecast as suitable and flocks are gathering.
    Looks like they're not all at the seaboard yet.


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    #64
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    slowburner wrote: »
    What is the difference?

    Migration is the regular seasonal journey between habitats, undertaken by many species of birds.

    Birds, in a flock, moving about the countryside in search for food is quite different.


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    #65
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Martin Easy Chest wrote: »
    Migration is the regular seasonal journey between habitats, undertaken by many species of birds.

    Birds, in a flock, moving about the countryside in search for food is quite different.
    I understand. It is just that those westward bound birds were very much on a determined route - markedly different behaviour to the regular feeding flights.
    If they were going from one habitat to another but simply taking a different route - then that's a migration. Perhaps it was a response to wind direction.


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    #66
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    If Swallows were flying West from your location then they most certainly were not migrating. (Why always the contradiction?)


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    #67
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Martin Easy Chest wrote: »
    If Swallows were flying West from your location then they most certainly were not migrating. (Why always the contradiction?)
    :confused: Contradiction? Crossed wires here somewhere.
    From my observations, they weren't flying from here, they were flying past here.


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    #68
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    slowburner wrote: »
    From my observations, they weren't flying from here, they were flying past here.

    Yes: and you said they were flying WEST. This was not migration, just birds on one side of you flying to somewhere the other side of you. Birds do it all the time. When the 15,000+ Starlings fly South to North over my house every evening next month they will be traveling between a feeding area and a roost - they will not be migrating Northward, any more than that flock of Swallows was migrating while flying West.

    My head is starting to hurt over this! :P


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    #69
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,730 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    Well, Oct 1 is certainly the latest that I have seen them about at home (not yet migrating). Still in healthy numbers. In UK today - weather is lovely :D


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    #70
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Martin Easy Chest wrote: »
    Yes: and you said they were flying WEST. This was not migration, just birds on one side of you flying to somewhere the other side of you. Birds do it all the time. When the 15,000+ Starlings fly South to North over my house every evening next month they will be traveling between a feeding area and a roost - they will not be migrating Northward, any more than that flock of Swallows was migrating while flying West.

    My head is starting to hurt over this! :P
    No worries.


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    #71
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Still a few feeding here today.


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    #72
    Arequipa
    Registered Users Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭Arequipa


    So, does anyone know of any way to track the migration of Irish/UK swallows?

    Any good websites which deal with the migration of swallows?

    I read somewhere that birds are photo/light sensitive.... Leading to birds breeding in Spring.... Does the darker evenings spark the migration as temperatures r still quite mild for Autumn?!

    Thank u!


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    #73
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Good numbers of birds passed by here yesterday. A constant steady stream of about one every ten seconds, all day.
    This is something which perplexes me. The standard route is due south and some of the largest movements have been flights straight into strong southerlies. Yesterday's migration route was altered to fly straight into the westerlies - there were no birds flying south. Call it a flock moving or whatever - I am certain that these were migrating birds. They must face into the wind to get some sort of lift. I noticed several that appeared to be almost gliding. They were so close I could have caught them with a butterfly net.

    The Peregrines noticed the diversion too but the swallows were too hard a target, hugging the trees and jinking all the way, more to avoid the wind than the Peregrine.
    I wonder if there were any casualties noted. They were flitting about so low amongst the roadside hedgerows that they must have risked being hit by cars etc.
    No sign of any today, so far.


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    #74
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,730 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    Good post :)


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    #75
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,730 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    Still here feeding around the house !!!!!! Can't believe it.


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    #76
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    E39MSport wrote: »
    Still here feeding around the house !!!!!! Can't believe it.

    Yes, while there has been a considerable migration in the past week, there are, and will be, a good few birds still around. People seem to rush into calling migrations once we hit September, as they confuse post-breeding flock movement with migration. The migration is the end of September into mid October.


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    #77
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    slowburner wrote: »
    The Peregrines noticed the diversion too but the swallows were too hard a target, ...more to avoid the wind than the Peregrine.
    I wonder if there were any casualties noted.

    Peregrines are one of the major predators for Swallows. The Swallows will certainly take evasive action to avoid a Peregrine.


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    #78
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,730 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    Martin Easy Chest wrote: »
    Yes, while there has been a considerable migration in the past week, there are, and will be, a good few birds still around. People seem to rush into calling migrations once we hit September, as they confuse post-breeding flock movement with migration. The migration is the end of September into mid October.

    Very thoughtful of them to ease me into my annual grieving. ;) Very happy to see them still here.


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    #79
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    You have to admire the plucky little swallows, the terriers of the sky - yesterday they 'buzzed' a hovering Peregrine, he (or she) didn't hang around for long and went back to patrolling the more usual pigeon flight path. More calories as reward for the effort expended I expect.


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    #80
    ThunderCat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭ThunderCat


    Do the swallows go as far north as Iceland to breed each spring? The reason I ask is that is that I saw a map in a bird book that I got a few days back that suggested they did but there is a massive expanse of sea between Iceland and Scotland/Ireland that they would have to cross that I wouldnt have thought would be possible to cover. Also when our swallows leave the southern coast of Ireland, do they fly directly over the sea until they reach Northern France or do they fly via the South West edge of England so they encounter land again?


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    #81
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    I'm afraid your book is wrong. Swallows have become lost and appeared in I Iceland from time to time, but they are reported in their rare bird news. They are not an Icelandic breeding species.


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    #82
    ThunderCat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭ThunderCat


    Martin Easy Chest wrote: »
    I'm afraid your book is wrong. Swallows have become lost and appeared in I Iceland from time to time, but they are reported in their rare bird news. They are not an Icelandic breeding species.

    Thanks for the reply Martin Easy Chest. The books map mentioned summer migrants rather than specifically stating Swallows but there was a photo of a Swallow on the same page which made me ask the question.


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    #83
    donal2000
    Registered Users Posts: 150 ✭✭donal2000


    Saw a group of Swallows near me during the week.

    Couldnt believe they were still here in October. I reckon they have since headed off.


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    #84
    swifts need our help!
    Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    I saw swallows today.

    Mark
    N Ireland


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    #85
    trebor28
    Registered Users Posts: 1,051 ✭✭✭trebor28


    saw swallows in two separate locations today.


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    #86
    Bsal
    Registered Users Posts: 1,766 ✭✭✭Bsal


    There's still a few around the Swords area today.


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    #87
    artieanna
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 1,139 ✭✭✭artieanna


    I haven't seen swallows around this area for about three weeks, thought I would have got a chance to get a group of them in a pic on the wires, they just seemed to vanish really quick from here this year. :(


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    #88
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,730 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    Just saw one at home :eek:


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    #89
    trebor28
    Registered Users Posts: 1,051 ✭✭✭trebor28


    saw a flock of about 20 on wednesday, i think it was.


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    #90
    Arequipa
    Registered Users Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭Arequipa


    Just back from cycle...
    Along the seafront between Sutton & Kilbarrack there were groups of Brent Geese.
    They must be arrivibg from Iceland ... So as the swallows depart... Our Winter visitors arrive!


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    #91
    Mothman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    A flock of about 100 swallows past over this evening


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