View allAll Photos Tagged Swift
In Montell, Uvalde County. I'm not completely sure about the species ID, but think the swift setwing fits.
08-08-15_MG_5965 Was a nice surprise to find this one perched their numbers have been dropping rather fast this year for some reason.
Explore March 27/08 ..Violet-green Swallow 4.75 inches long. This is a good challenge to catch them in flight. Will be working on a better copy. Their breeding habitat is semi-open areas in western North America from Alaska to Mexico. They nest in cavities in a tree or rock crevice, sometimes forming small colonies. They migrate in flocks to Central and South America. These birds often forage in flocks, usually flying relatively high but sometimes flying low over water. They eat insects. Believe this to be a juvenile due to brown head. IMG_7454
A couple of record shots of Swift from 2013. Have tried hard over the years to get shots of these but they are so fast & difficult. They will be back soon but I do not see them in my part of the village, much too built up now
With overcast skies, the grass being cut around Wilstone res banks and a storm approaching I hadn't expected much. I had planned to photograph bees on the banks but the mowers put paid to that. What it did do was displace millions of insects which in turn bought in the Swift. The skies were alive with thousands of them all enjoying their feed. Despite the high numbers, it seems some individuals favoured particular patches of the sky. These two individuals, one with a little damage on its underside and the other with a scruffy wing I repeatedly managed to get shots of.
While tracking 1 I hit the trigger just as a second popped into view. Luck more than judgement here.
It took a lot of shots to get one worth posting! These birds are FAST! Did you know their feet and legs are so tiny they can barely walk but in the air they are incredible.
In my efforts to get a at least a vaguely crisp panning shot of a swift over the last few weeks, I had collected quite a few shots of them doing their amazing acrobatics as they zoomed across the sky to catch an insect meal. They were inevitably photographed at varying heights and distances, so many were just too small in frame to carry as a photographic composition. I thought I might montage lots of the better shots together on a single frame, so here they all are, showing off all their twists and turns. If you peer closely, you can see one bird was caught by the shutter just as he/she opened their beak to swallow an insect.
One of my last shots from the Narrows in Zion National Park. The crowds really thin out the deeper you go into the Narrows. I think this was about 3 miles in from the start of the Narrows. Finding compositions in the Narrows is a lot fun. This shot is one of my favorite water flow shots I've taken. Nice water curves wrapping around the rocks really makes this my favorite image from the Narrows. We didn't finish the the Narrows until 6 or 7pm, so the light was a lot darker and cooler than some of my earlier shots.
Narrows
Zion National Park, Utah
I just posted my summer timelapse project online. youtu.be/AIdznH2bYwA
The number of Swifts in the evening sky has dropped significantly over the last couple of nights so I guess that some of the Swifts have started to head south on their migration back to Africa. Unfortuately we didn't get the golden sunset when the Swift numbers were higher.
Java railway junction. I was looking east on the mainline of the CPR. The Great Sandhills short line railway leads off on the left.
After having travelled from one end to the other of the Indonesian island of Java, visiting Java SK was high on my to-do list.
My car is seen on the right. The local farm roads here are a bit sketchy. I don't recommend visiting in bad weather!
Rural Municipality of Swift Current.
Province of Saskatchewan in late March 2021.
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!
The cargo ship INDUSTRIAL SWIFT alongside in the port of Saint-Nazaire to load MAN motors. In the bottom right the liner MSC BELLISSIMA.
Le cargo INDUSTRIAL SWIFT à quai dans le port de Saint-Nazaire pour charger des moteurs MAN. Dans le fond à droite le paquebot MSC BELLISSIMA.
IMO: 9741152
MMSI: 636017393
Call Sign: D5KR7
Flag: Liberia [LR]
AIS Vessel Type: Cargo
Gross Tonnage: 11619
Deadweight: 12337 t
Length Overall x Breadth Extreme: 147m × 23m
Year Built: 2017
Status: Active
Flower Swift | Polytremis pellucida | Hesperiidae
Samsung NX1 & Helios 44M - 58mm f/2
10mm Macro Tube | f/4 | Manual Focus | Available Light | Handheld
Kunming | Yunnan Province | China
All Rights Reserved. © Nick Cowling 2017.
The name Swift is highly appropriate as they hold the record for level flight speed under their own power (69.3 miles per hour). But this was during a turbo-charged screaming flight, whereas the usual flight speed was 22-26 mph. Other birds like Peregrine Falcons can reach much greater speeds but only when freefalling using the power of gravity. They fly around with their beaks open catching insects which they store in a ball to bring back to their youngsters in the nest. Analysis of just 12 food balls revealed more than 300 species of insect and spider. It is thought that each Swift may catch 10,000 insects in a day, which is more (numerically) than any other British bird.
The other 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. If a Swift gets grounded it cannot spring back into the air like all other birds with normal sized legs. Several times I have found grounded Swifts and have saved their lives by launching them back into the air. An immensely satisfying thing to do. I think you can just about see some of its tiny toes emerging from the plumage. And speaking of Swift toes, they have four toes pointing forwards which is known as pamprodactylous. Most birds have three toes forwards and a hind toe pointing back.
I photographed this newly arrived individual in Yorkshire at the weekend using 1/2000 exposure.
This immature Swift has been banging on the nest box to try to displace the resident adults. Shown here, it bumps its head, rights itself, flies away and returns for another go...
I had taken the 135mm f/1.8 lens with me to try to get photos of swallows feeding inside the barn. That allowed ridiculously fast shutter speed, but the crop was severe. Upscaled with Topaz Gigapixel.
The Swift Motor Company made Swift Cars in Coventry from 1900 until 1931. It grew progressively from James Starley's Coventry Sewing Machine Company, via bicycle and motorised cycle manufacture. This 1927 Swift, SF 7805, is seen at a lunchtime gathering at The Old Bull Inn, Inkberrow, on 23rd May 2021.
Swift 10/12 (1911) Engine1814 cc
SWIFT SET
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623847196238...
Shot at the aviva Classic, Silverstone 20.09.2009 ref. 47-188
Swift Parrot feeding in a flowering Yellow Gum at the base of Mt Ainslie in Canberra. A small flock of these endangered migratory parrots spent a few weeks in Canberra recently.