View allAll Photos Tagged Swift
This guy dropped in front of my feet 2 years ago, fainted by the heat under the roof probably. I fed him several weeks (every hour! - I even took him every day to my job!), until his wings were long enough (and my god, they ARE long!), then brought him to a bird center where they could return him to the skies... I really LOVE swifts, they make me think of summer. A pity we only see them during 3 months here in Belgium, when they're nesting here.
Yesterday morning our local Swifts were flying over the garden so I went out with my camera for some target practice. This wasn't my best photo of the session, but a Swift feeding is something I've been trying to photograph for ages. They fly around catching flying insects which they store in their crop to take back to the nest. They can catch up to a thousand insects before returning to feed the chicks. David Lack who studied Swifts nesting in a tower at Oxford University counted 312 different species of insect and spider in these bug balls, and found that typically they contain 3-500 insects. Because winged insect food is so variable and unpredictable the youngsters can go into a kind of torpor, dropping their body temperature and arresting their development, then resuming to normal development when the insects start to reappear. They probably hunt at about 25 mph but even at this speed they can differentiate between insects. One swift was found to have caught several stingless drone honeybees but neatly avoided all of the stinging females. It is thought that each Swift may catch 10,000 insects in a day, which makes it surprising that this is the first time I have managed to photograph one feeding.
Not as sharp as it looked on the camera, Grantown-on Spey, Scotland.
These are noticeably absent from the skies above our garden this year. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen any at all in mid Sussex yet
July 2022 - reprocessed using Topaz Sharpen AI
I was very pleased to see my first swifts of 2015,they were not my local swifts and they wouldnt come to close.But hopefully i will get better shots in the weeks to come,i will have to check to see if my local ones have returned.
This is a Swift (Apus apus) which was part of a big group of Swifts feeding on insects on Fenns Moss NNR (National Nature Reserve).
I took these photo earlier in the year and put some on Flickr. However, I had so many of these images to go through that I thought I was able to sort some of the better ones out for more careful processing.
Initially when I tried to photograph them I was having no success at all. For 40 minutes I tried, and most of the hundreds of frames I shot didn't even have a Swift in them or it was going out of frame. They were just too fast when they flew in closer, and you literally had only a fraction of a second to frame them. They were usually out of frame before I had time to press the shutter button. Then I found if I picked up the bird further away and got the AF locked on it, that eventually it would wheel back in close, which made keeping it in the frame and tracking it much easier.
There was quite a cold breeze, but it was sunny. A line of trees along the old rail way line was acting as a wind break, and big clouds of flies were in the sheltered area from the wind behind the trees, but which caught the sun. Here several hundred Swifts had gathered to hunt these flies.
One of our swifts returning with food for the young in our attic. Wonderful to see them zooming in at various times - think we have at least 2 nests and possibly 3.
Swift Creek splits into several branches at Canyon View Park in Afton, Wyoming, so little steel bridges are scattered throughout the park. Fallen leaves add to the picturesque location.
Alpine swift (Apus melba)
Meaning behind the name:
Apus = Latin, and derived from Greek meaning "without foot" and refers to their appearance of not having any feet.
melba = Unknown origin and is thought to be of Chinese in 1758. One suggestion is the word could then be a shortened form of the Latin "melanoalba" or "melalba" which means "black, white" which is the colour appearance of this swift.
Did you know?
Swifts are unique with their legs and feet, since they are only designed to cling and not perch. They spend almost their entire lives on the wing, only landing to rear up their young.
The English name "Swift" is just one of several names that was given to it. Others include "House swift" (1668), Black Martin or swift (1678). The Alpine swift wasn't well known here at the time, and the "Common swift" was thought to be a bad omen and surrounded by superstition. However, Swift became common usage for this species from 1768. Swifts, Martins and Swallows had all shared names prior due to their simular resemblance to each other.
Suzuki Swift Sport en el Rallye Catalunya - Costa Brava de 2008.
Suzuki Swift Sport al Rallye Catalunya - Costa Brava de 2008.
We have a very small number this year, all nesting in the one old barn. Now I'm getting on top of their flight plans, it's getting easier to catch them, but still a way to go.
This is all I have to offer of the magnificent Swift this year. They're just about all gone now. Waiting for their return :) Thanks everyone, for comments etc.....I am not returning comments etc on others images as the house is still taking up my time. The kitchen is just about complete now, so my wifes happy. Cheers Gregg
this picture is just incredible and so is miss swift! i couldn't resist to make a wallpaper with it!
size: 1280 x 800 px
picture from: www.taylorswift.es
This Swift was about 2 feet from the top of the grass.
Still trying to get one catching a fly in mid-air...
Poor Light while two swifts were flying and when the good light came the Swifts were nowhere to be seen :-( better luck next time maybe.
A Little disappointed as i waited for a while but that's wildlife and why i love it.
Two Juvenile swallows as book ends. Two
Juvenile Swifts looking in and in the middle an adult swallow feeding a juvenile.
We climbed Ingleborough to find flocks of swifts at the top, feeding on the swarms of midges. (I haven’t painted the midges). The hill in the background is Pen-y-ghent which means roughly "windy hill" in the ancient British language. Watercolour 11x12", french ultramarine, quinacridone magenta, permanent rose, aureolin, cadmium yellow pale.