The start of spring '23 has brought with it a serious alpine swift influx! They’ve been turning up all over the shop, with 7 reported together over in Ireland. One was widely twitched at Oldbury Power Station in Glos, but when one was reported in Porthcawl at Pwll Y Waun pool and I was tempted out the door on a very rainy Monday lunch time.
After a bit of a mad dash down, I saw it as soon as got out of the car flying around near the medical centre. It was rainy miserably, but I got my camera out for some shots, and realized the hasty battery charge I did before leaving wasn’t enough to even let me fire off a few shots. I had to try and make do with my phone camera, which would have been ridiculous apart from the fact the swift came quite close at times. I spent the rest of the time wiping rain frantically off my bins to try and soak up the views properly. You can just about see the white in this first picture -
It had to be a quick smash and grab style twitch and I bombed off home to get back in acceptable time. My first British lifer of the year, but also a Glam, Wales and ’23 tick too. Result. Great bird! I was surprised how much of a unit it seemed to be. Seemed a large swift. Could a pallid be possible in the autumn for a 3 swift year??!?
