I heard a cuckoo for the first time this year last Friday, in All Stretton, Shropshire. No swallows, swifts or any other migrants though.
The tomato seeds in the greenhouse still haven't germinated. They've been in over three weeks now.
Spring has not sprung in Carmarthenshire.
Swallows in Fife today
Never saw a cuckoo til I went to Sutherland in may. Hundreds of them, even sat on the road and verges
Cuckoos and swallows appeared in the valley on same day a week last sunday. Since then have heard the cuckoo daily but not seen another swallow since. I am starting to worry for them. I usually have dozens of nests around the farm and they are one of my favorite birds (along with the pied wagtails). Not even seen a martin or a swift yet and we have hundreds of them as a rule.
Now you mention it, I've loads of bluebells and primroses in the garden, saxifrages too. It's nice to see them. Despite the cold it's been over a week since it last rained here. That follows weeks and weeks of rain. Thank goodness Wales is insoluble.
I may have heard the same cuckoo as @Ambrose last night in the woods at the south end of The Long Mynd - in Priors Holt forestry as it dropped towards dusk. First of this year, and first around my part of the world for several years if truth be told (I live maybe 35 miles away, so relatively local-ish).
There's been a few swallows near home, and I heard a house martin a couple of days ago. It keeps dropping cold again though, think they bugger off southwards again when that happens to wait it out.
I don't know their range but I was hauling up Plush Hill when I heard it. Priors Holt is about 7 km away. So that makes TWO cuckoos!
Shame on me, I have just noticed that I have spelled the thread title incorrectly. 😔
Swallows, sandpipers and cuckoos seen, Sleat, Skye at the start of the week. Very late for my first spotting of a swallow but I have been inside most of the year so far.
Off down to Fife (Leven) Kormoran for a long weekend camping tomorrow so it'd be good to see some new returns. Planning to pop along to Kilminning NR and other bits of the coast too. Just got a scope for my birthday so was watching the local Ospreys last night. We've had Sand Martin's back for a while. Not heard or seen a cuckoo.
I'm assuming the terms and puffins will be back now along the coast from us, but knackered knee has been stopping much mooching about.
We've had swallows locally, but not seen martins or swifts yet. No cuckoos near us 🙁
"our" swifts are due next week, if the last three years are anything to go by, but as the UK wind has all been coming from the north for the last week I'm assuming they'll be later.
Had them sniffing around the swift boxes before they left last year so hoping they'll nest this time.
Just ospreys in Angus so far, none of the others yet. Must pop up the Sidlaws soon and see if the cuckoo has arrived on Auchterhouse hill yet; that's usually around the 30th April.
Locally, I saw a Swallow two weeks ago but none since, Chiffchaffs a plenty and a Willow Warbler this week. No Cuckoos yet.
Up at the coast at half term and spotted a Wheatear and Ring Ouzel. Looking forward to seeing the Hobbies in a week or so.
It really doesn’t feel very springlike at the moment!
*Swallows in Lancashire last couple of days*
African or European?
Bloody foreign birds, coming over here and eating all our seeds!
STOP THE FLIGHTS!
I'd be surprised if the Pembroke swifts are here before mid May - they always seem late compared to some and the northerlies and cold air will be delaying them.
I'm hoping to get my new swift boxes up this weekend so they are in place in time without being empty and tempting to the house sparrows. We used to have swift nests under the eves but they've stopped for a couple of years - hoping to lure them in to some nice snug boxes.
Next step is to get an outside speaker ready to play swift calls in the evenings when they turn up.
I’d be surprised if the Pembroke swifts are here before mid May – they always seem late compared to some and the northerlies and cold air will be delaying them.
I've seen quite a few around Swansea and Gower so they are on the way.
Just ospreys in Angus so far
There were a couple of reliable sightings of an osprey in north Gower over the last few days, and weirdly my Merlin app picked one up north of Swansea a couple of Sundays ago. I didn't see it ( I was in a heavily wooded valley so not many sightlines), and the app isn't 100% reliable so I decided that it might be a mistake, but it definitely sounds like an osprey calling!
Ever so slightly OT but probably of interest to some on here: https://www.eaglereintroductionwales.com/ I went to an interesting talk about this last week.
First Cuckoo heard calling this morning and the recent arrival of Sedge Warblers were busy along the river bank. Feeling much more spring like today, hopefully get out for a ride this evening to check for the Hobbies.
Heard two cuckoos and saw a couple of swallows on the same walk a couple of weeks ago in Surrey. Was surprised to hear two cuckoos, they're pretty rare
First hobby of the year today - what a fantastic bird
Saw my first swallow of the year in my local bird reserve (by the sea) last week. Made me smile
Not migratory but I spotted a treecreeper in my bins on the dog walk this morning, they're not particularly rare but I rarely see them. Was a nice bonus
First swift day before yesterday (Northants). Should start to see some more now that we've lost the northerly wind.
Our swifts have just this minute arrived here in the South Downs. 2 so far, hopefully this is the pair that nest in our open eaves, can’t tell yet. Hopefully lots more to come, numbers were already down last year compared to previous.
Cuckoo's and house martins arrived last week in Stowmarket.
Swallows are back on Gower. Not heard a cuckoo tho
Saw first pair of swifts in Chichester yesterday amd heard a Cuckoo last weekend up near Lechlade (first one iv heard in years to be fair).
Had a sprinkle of swallows around Inverness a week ago but nothing more yet. Yesterday a cuckoo in the woods behind me
I'm surprised no swallows en masse but it's been a grimy few weeks
I saw a hoopoe in my local park. Quite a striking bird with it's head crest and long curved beak. It was pecking in the short grass of the path. They don't breed here and are pretty rare apparently. Later further round the park I found a couple of bird watchers with a massive camera and they were not amused that I'd seen the hoopoe by chance as they'd been there for hours 🤣
I saw hoopoes once in Portugal. Never in the UK.
A nice chilled local ride gave us loads of skylarks today above Brynamman, they just don't have a care about the kites.
Once at home I got a few planters ready, dug in loads of compost into a couple of beds and did a load of preparation around the garden. Bloody robins everywhere 😀👍🏼
Plenty of cuckoos round Glen Nevis over the weekend, plus a few swallows too. Tawny Owls were calling overnight.
There are swallows and house martins around Biddestone, and I walked up to West Kennet Long Barrow from Avebury this afternoon, and there were a bunch of swallows flying around there, because they nest in a cavity in one of the burial chambers as you go in. If you stand at the back of the chamber opposite, and keep quiet, they forget you’re there and start flying in and out.
Not a good photo, but tricky circumstances, the nest is tucked up in the top right corner.
Saw my first bat of the year last night. Still missing swallows and swifts.
Ride out past the fishing lakes onto the Manhood Peninsula last night and it seems the swifts have all turned up and were having a bug feast. Brilliant birds they are just screaming around the sky like absolute hooligans.
We were in the far NW Wales at the weekend.
Sand Martins very much in evidence and I heard Swifts from our balcony - this makes me very happy as I love sitting there in the evening as they go screaming past about 10 feet away..... So close I can hear their wing beats!
Swallows and sand martins beside the river in Fort William no swifts yet
4 Swifts hooning around over Salisbury just now. It's great to hear the sound of summer again!
Swifts arrived a day late. Arrived yesterday, but almost always arrive on 5th May, like clockwork. Thought they might have arrived early given how warm it was a couple of weeks back but then the weather turned cold again.
Nesting in the eaves/rafters of my house already. Annoying, cos it's right by the bedroom and they are ear piercingly loud.
Heard my first cuckoo of the year on Gower this morning
There were a couple of reliable sightings of an osprey in north Gower over the last few days
Really? I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled....any idea where (more specifically)?
TwodogsFull Member
There were a couple of reliable sightings of an osprey in north Gower over the last few days
Really? I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled….any idea where (more specifically)?
That original sighting was near Broadpool but there were more sighting around Cwm Ivy area last weekend, and also one was seen on the other side of Swansea at Crymlyn Burrows, near the mouth of the river, a few days ago. The same person who saw the Crymlyn osprey was also reporting 3 cuckoos calling at Pant yr Sais nature reserve.
That original sighting was near Broadpool but there were more sighting around Cwm Ivy area last weekend
Cool...I'll keep an eye out. I go past Broadpool probably every other morning. Seen Red Kites and Buzzards, but never anything I could think was an osprey.
What I think is just one cuckoo* again this morning, I was up on Cefn Bryn at 6am, and it seemed to be in the trees just south of Oldwalls...which, strangely, is where I managed to get a photo of one about 15 years ago
* I mean, definitely a cuckoo, but only one
Definitely four, possibly five, swifts here in Shifnal this evening. They're not screaming yet but they're charging around in between more fluttering flights, so it's only a matter of time before the sound of summer starts up. I love 'em, me
First swift this evening, quite high up in Hurstpierpoint. Downloaded swift call MP3 from swift.conservation.org this afto, so speaker going up tomorrow.
Only problem is one swift box is currently occupied by starlings - this year's brood making their first airborne adventures this evening
If you want to download an app that you can get slightly obsessed with, then I’d recommend Merlin ID
Just leave your phone mic on and It identifies birdsong and let’s you know what you’re listening to and gives you lots of info on the little feathery things. We have it running pretty much constantly when we’re out walking
A few swifts and house martins back in the Dark Peak over the last day or two.
Swifts over Pembroke now. I started playing calls to attract them towards my two new boxes and within an hour had a fly-past by one, close enough and for long enough for a shit photo!
4 then zoomed around for a bit but didn’t come close. Tomorrow is another day to lure them in!
First swifts of the year arrived overhead at about 8pm this evening about 10 miles inland from Scarborough in North Yorkshire. Saw the first swallow about a week ago but no regulars since. The swifts nest locally, some in our roof, so normally once they arrive they are a constant presence until the autumn.
I have been enjoying the arrival of swallows the last couple of weeks here near Helston , Cornwall but also a large number of red kites this week joining a healthy number of buzzards. 😊
We've been enjoying cukoos, wheatear, arctic tern, pink footed geese, (think) dotterel, black tailed godwit, whimbrel, puffin (migrant?) and sand martins....
Plus of course the resident golden eagle, hen harrier and a load of corncrakes including one hiding under my camper at 4.30am this morning as I got up for the ferry... The poor folk in tents must have listened to kkkkkrk kkkkkrk all night long!
And a bazillion other residents too common to mention...
After saying I hadn't seen any a few days ago. That night on a ride the swallows and martins were out.
They've stopped beating around the house as we've got a long straight hedge that has a couple of buildings at one end. The sparrows nest in the hedge and a sparrowhawk uses the buildings as cover for an attack run down the hedge line. It happens so fast that you usually just see the puff of ex-sparrow.
I heard a couple of cuckoos (or maybe one cuckoo in two places) at Swinley today. Not part of the brief but I also saw my first live woodcock up close which was cool. I need to do more evening rides at Holmbury now the weather has improved to try and hear this year's nightjars...such an amazing sound.
I walk the dog up on some local moorland where there's a distinct order of sightings. First the Curlews, then a good number of Larks, then a pair of Wheatears that always appear on a certain stretch of the track. This week has been a bit of a jumble as the Lapwings are now displaying in numbers, a pair of Sandpipers has reappeared at the reservoir edge, Meadow Pipits and Willow Warblers plus a few Marsh tits..... the place is really livening up. I've been watching a family group of Roe Deer up there too. There's been a couple of adult does, each of which seem to have a yearling follower, but a week or so I spotted a buck taking a bit of an interest. He stood off for quite a while before the does wandered off, but the next day I had the binos with me and he's clearly an older buck, dished grey face and antlers are going back, so he won't have many more seasons left to do his thing.
The grouse are making a bit of a comeback- they were pretty much decimated by some wildfires up there a couple of years ago, but they seem to be establishing a few coveys now. I also saw a snipe yesterday, so the recovery is more or less complete now.
Western edge of West Yorkshire, Scapegoat Hill. The moorland I've described is Slaithwaite Moor around Cupwith Reservoir.
Went up a bit later today and there were fewer folk around, so I was treated to a "wader extravaganza". First off I heard a snipe but couldn't see it, then could hear two sandpipers but couldn't see them either. There were two pairs of curlews on the far side of the reservoir, and as I was watching them a pair of Oystercatchers flew across and landed on the water. They aren't up there normally so I guess they were passing through. On my way back to the car the Sandpipers put in a low level water skimming performance before landing and bobbing around on a small sandspit and I heard a snipe drumming. There was a pair of them putting on a fantastic courtship display which was mesmerising, especially as the skylarks decided it was time to do some background accompaniment, with three within a couple of hundred yards of us. That was topped off by the Oystercatchers doing a semicircular flypast with all the noise they make. Felt utterly privileged.
One swallow a summer does not make... Today I saw a swallow in All Stretton.
Swifts just arrived yesterday. The house martins are still nowhere to be seen
One of the ospreys is back above Loch Tay - one circling and one on the nest visible.
Just started seeing the swifts around over the last couple of days, maybe they were just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit more for the insects.
On Sunday I headed out with two objectives:
1 - hear the cuckoos that had been spotted in a local nature reserve.
2 - spot the osprey that had been seen a few days earlier at the mouth of the river a few miles further on.
Objective 1, I walked up the side of the canal, fen on the left, for about 50m before I saw a cuckoo displaying in a tree about 50m ahead of me, the first one I've ever actually seen. I had a quick walk around the rest of the very small NNR, saw the cuckoo again and quickly headed towards objective 2 on the beach..... where I failed to see any bird of prey at all. Harriers, buzzard, owls, kestrels, merlins, all sorts in this area normally, but on Sunday nothing but skylarks, meadow pipits, stonechats and whitethroats. and a man who complimented me on my hat! 😀
Swifts came back yesterday. Wonderful sight and sound.
BUT......
camped out in North Wales forest edge on weekend and heard and saw my frst ever Nightjar. Magical. Apparantly they are the last migratory bird to return to the UK each year.
Welshfarmer - Nightjar and Woodcock are still on my 'must see' birds, I'm so pleased for you.
On the tandem as a stoker, I'm able to look around and noticeable by their absence are swallows. Hardly any in the fields or over rivers and ponds, where a few years ago their were hundreds. The storms over the last few years have not helped these birds.
On the tandem as a stoker, I’m able to look around and noticeable by their absence are swallows. Hardly any in the fields or over rivers and ponds, where a few years ago their were hundreds. The storms over the last few years have not helped these birds.
That's curious. I've seen loads around here lately. (And also seen and heard more cuckoos than ever in my lifetime!)
Swallows nesting in our porch which we’ve not had before. They are always around in the summer but previously nest elsewhere. Assume we’ll get a heap of droppings but otherwise they are very welcome. Won’t be shutting the outer door for a while then!
Stopping in a flat attached to a house in St Abbs. The lady has got at least eight swift boxes up and there have been at least twenty swifts screaming around the house at times. I witnessed one actually going in a box and one on the floor. I left it where it was and eventually it managed to fly off. They’re a wonderful, spectacular sight. Lots of martins, as in hundreds below one cliff too, sedge warblers, reed buntings, whitethroat also identified first with the “Merlin” app and then visually. Fantastic!
Spotted an osprey on my lunchtime dog walk yesterday, just perched above the river near us. Rubbish photo, as I was about 150m away. (the river is just our of sight, behind the dead tree the bird is perched on). We've also got loads more sand martins this year than I can remember. There's a big section of sandy river bank just below this point, and there must be dozens of little nests burrowed into the banking now.
apologies for all the blur, this was taken at 5am so was very dark, gambled on the rapor-head gimbal meaning i could get the head sharp even if the wings had motion blur!
taken at Horn Mill Trout farm
Curlews by Clearwen reservoir today. And another solitary swallow. The weather is horrible here at the moment 😔.
@dakuan that's very good....what did you shoot that on and what iso? Looks pretty sharp on the phone.
Could always look at topaz ai sharp or noise filters to crisp up if soft at higher Res....
its on a sony mirrorless, iso 12800, put it through DXO pure raw, find topaz does too much
So swifts have been around a bit for a few weeks, but in the last couple weeks they've really put in an appearance - the northerly winds obviously discouraged them, but this week they are here with screaming parties of 10 plus.
Some slightly flaky pics.....they aren't so dark in lightroom
