View allAll Photos Tagged SWIFT
Canon EOS R5
RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
Æ’/7.1 500.0 mm 1/4000 640
The swift is a medium-sized aerial bird, which is a superb flyer. Sleeping, eating, bathing and even mating on the wing, swifts rarely touch the ground. They are also the fastest birds in level flight, with an impressive top speed of 69mph.
Swifts are plain sooty brown, with a white throat, but in flight against the sky they appear black. They have long, scythe-like wings and a short, forked tail. Swifts are summer visitors, breeding across the UK, but are most numerous in the south and east. Spending their winters in Africa, swifts migrate 3,400 miles twice a year, stopping off to refuel in places like Portugal and France along the way.
After a long flight back from their summer in Africa, swifts have one thing on their minds - to mate. Swifts pair for life, returning to the same site each year for a little nest renovation before laying and incubating their eggs. They like to live in houses and churches, squeezing through tiny gaps to nest inside roofs. But as more old buildings are renovated and gaps in soffits closed up, swift nest sites are fast disappearing. This, in part, has resulted in swifts being added to the Red list in the 2021 UK Conservation Status Report.
Red is the highest conservation priority, with species on this list needing urgent action. Species on this list, such as swifts, are globally threatened, with big declines in breeding populations and ranges. That’s why swifts urgently need our help. By installing a swift brick in a wall, or putting up a nestbox, you could give a swift a place to rest and raise a family.
In my part of the Yorkshire Pennines Swifts are one of the shortest-staying summer visitors. They arrive in May after most other migrants have already arrived, and they are usually gone by the middle of August, again before most migrants have departed. This year my last Pennine sighting was 20 August and I thought that would be my last for the year, but on 9 September there were at least half a dozen Swifts flying around the Spurn peninsula. Late Swifts are always worth checking as this is the time when rare Pallid Swifts occasionally wander here from southern Europe. These are difficult to identify, especially if the light is poor so I really only photographed this bird to check it wasn't a Pallid Swift. Alas, not a Pallid, but I was pleasantly surprised by the photo so thought I'd upload it.
Another interesting thing about Swifts is that once they leave their nest, their feet won't touch the ground for two or three years until they nest themselves. By this time the young Swift will have made two or three return journeys to sub-Saharan Africa. They eat, drink, sleep and even mate on the wing, only landing when they nest. The oldest known Swift was ringed as a nestling in Switzerland and was caught back there 21 years later, by which time it was estimated to have flown perhaps 3 million miles.
The scientific name Apus apus comes from the Greek " a pous" meaning without foot. Swift legs are so small that it was once believed that they did not have any feet.
Decided to try the 100-400GM today -- it's a little faster, and should be faster focusing as well.
Definitely the clearest photo so far of a Swift. But there is a distressing resemblance to a fish - possibly a salmon.
Up in Vail this weekend and caught a shot of the swift waters running down into Gore Creek from The Mountains of Vail. ENJOY! www.matthewmcewanphoto.com
Swift over Chasewater dam, Staffordshire. Very much a lucky shot but one I have been attempting for a long time.
Swift Crab Spider (Mecaphesa celer), immature female. Found on Spiraea nipponica in my front yard. Arvada, Jefferson Co., Colo.
I've never really tried taking photos of swifts but there were a few flying around the sea wall at RSPB Frampton Marsh so I thought I'd give it a go. As I expected it wasn't easy but I was quite happy with some of the photos I got
In the snowy wildness of Churchill, Canada, a red fox dashed gracefully across the frozen landscape.
N917XA - Boeing B-737-86J - Swift Air
(in ex XTRA Airways c/s - very small SwiftAir-titles)
at Toronto Lester B. Pearson Airport (YYZ)
c/n 32.917 - built in 2002 for Air Berlin as D-ABBF -
to XTRA Airways in 2016 -
transferred to Swift Air
operating for Sunwing Airlines
Swift Creek in Scout Canyon. Swift Creek is fed by Periodic Spring aka Intermittent Spring is one of the very few springs in the world that starts and stops at regular intervals. It is the largest intermittent spring in the United States and is the water source for the town of Afton, Wyoming.
Fall foliage reflected in a puddle along Swift River, NH.
Shot on Fuji Velvia (RVP) slide film with a Canon EOS 50E camera.
On a hazy day back when RoadRailer trains were a thing, solo UP6754 (GE C44AC) rolls around Tehachapi Loop with 37 Swift RoadRailer units in September 2000.
(00.063.03_UP6754_SwiftRRailerWt)
Estoril Racing Kickoff 2nd Apr 22
SINGLE SEATER SERIES QLFY
Driver: A. RODRIGUES
Team: ANTONIO RODRIGUES
Car: SWIFT
Well, I am becoming obsessed with adding colorful lines to the images. I think this one turned out good, but it could have been better. Hope you guys like it. She looks amazing by the way! :)
++Next edit will be of The Jonas Brothers. <3
Without you, there is no time
The bee acquires the stillness of a stone
And nature's frantic flap assumes a stationary stance.
Colour fades and life is held as though in heavy glass
The swift, suspended inches from her nest
Will there remain 'til after you return.
for my Elastigirl