View allAll Photos Tagged Swift
It looks interesting from the top even with folded wings. This attractive looking Orange Swift was resting on a piece of cardboard in the conservatory waiting for dusk. I couldn’t resist such opportunity. It turned out to be a patient and cooperative model. Bath, Somerset, England.
One of several Orange Swifts that visited our downstairs shower room, favouring the toilet roll as the best place to rest!
The Orange Swift (Hepialus sylvina) inhabits gardens, woodland and rough grassland, roadside verges, moorland and other wild places. The males are smaller and more brightly coloured than the females. It flies later in the year than the other swifts, from July to September. Along with with other members of the genus, the larvae feed on the roots of a variety of plants. It is quite common in Britain.
With VIA 186 tucked away in the siding at Pogamasing, CPKC 119 swiftly departs Sheahan crossing the Spanish River and a swift beneath the bridge. In whitewater terminology, a Class I rapid is the lowest level of difficulty and a Class VI rapid is the highest, where swifts are sections of moving water, but not quite big enough to be a classified as a rapid. Swifts tend to happen where the river narrows or the riverbed gets shallow. If you look closely, there is a "chute" with moderate whitewater beneath the bridge where both of these things happen. The whitewater in a swift is created by miniature waves from the fast moving water, unlike in a Class I or Class II rapid where the whitewater is generally from water recirculating over a rock.
The small hamlet of Sheahan can also be seen between the train and the river in the distance. A couple small camps (one cabin is visible) are all that are left from what was at one point a thriving logging community - MP 23.26 Nemegos Sub.
I probably only get a handful of swifts near home and not much opportunity to try photographing them, which is always a challenge at the best of times.
The last time I was at Fairburn Ings in West Yorkshire, there were so many around I had to accept the challenge of trying to get a photograph. This one is probably my best effort.
Loads of swifts screaming around Bangor Seacliff Road this evening. A real feeling of summer at long last.
During Swift Response 2023 exercise I was able to attend some practices at Bardenas Reales shooting range in Spain by USAF A10s. No real fire (not even BRRRRRRRT, because of the ammunition) but great flying demos, some of them for the media. A great day!
Swift Creek near intermittent spring, which is the water supply for the town of Afton, Wyoming. Lincoln County, Wyoming.
I got lucky this morning. The Swifts were back, the light was good and it all came together. Still a lot of room for improvement but I'm pleased with this.
Melting snow from the south-facing flanks of the Italian Alps funnels into the Rio Sesia and makes a swift, cold rush to eventually join the Po River southwest of Milan. In the background, the shoulders of Monte Rosa push through morning clouds while the summit remains shrouded. I visited this location in hopes of seeing the sunrise clouds burn brightly over the summit but instead enjoyed the cool air of morning and the sound of hurried water.
The visit to Alagna Valsesia and the surrounding mountains was a highlight of our family's trip to northern Italy last summer. Even better, we were able to meet up with a Flickr contact and his family and join them for a beautiful meal and some wine after a day in the hills (Marco, it was such a pleasure!). Given the recent coronavirus outbreak, I believe Marco, his family, and many others who are uninfected are now under quarantine per government mandate in an attempt to halt the spread of the illness. Many people are now suffering from fear, uncertainty, and sometimes loss. My hope is that this, too, shall pass, and with a minimum of additional pain.
Stay well!
One of many attempts to catch a Swift in flight. Great to watch, tough to capture. Taken at Abberton Reservoir.
Canon EOS R5
RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
ƒ/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.
This is the second time in 2020 that I have observed mating swifts over the Somerset skies. The prolonged good weather and visibility has been a great help.