View allAll Photos Tagged swift
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
This was taken in Wigan at a boxing event I was photographing. The boxers were very very swift as you can imagine!
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.
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
White-throated Swifts are a bird found in western North America from northern California down to Honduras. The northern populations a migratory. They draw attention to themselves by their staccato chattering calls which to my ear sound very unswiftlike. They usually nest in high, rocky cliff crevices but can nest in buildings. I have seen them many times but usually at great distance. But on this trip to Baja we managed to find a few flying at low altitude so I managed to capture a photo. Its scientific name Aeronautes saxatlis translates as "air sailor of the rocks". You can see here that it's not just the throat that is white. There are also white flank patches and the tips to the secondary wing feathers are also white.
Swift by name and swift by nature - tricky birds to photograph!! Seen at The Abbey Halesowen West Midlands UK - 27-08-24
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.
A short 26 car 910 drops downhill near Swift as it slows for the west siding switch. Todays meet between 910 and his westbound counterpart 909 will take place just ahead. GP38-2's 4438 and 4417 lead the way east on April 12, 1983.
quite pleased with the general sharpness of this for such a fast bird . .quite pleased to have got it in the frame at all!
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.
In August migrating chinook and sockeye salmon swim up Swift Creek at Valemount, British Columbia, Canada.
Every September, the Vaux's Swifts migrate through Portland and use a chimney at a local elementary school to roost. Up to 10,000 birds gather at sunset and put on an amazing show as they swoop in to the chimney. Hundreds of people come every night to hang out, picnic and watch the show. Occasionally a hawk comes by and provides a little added excitement by trying to get dinner.