Between the Storms

 With Storm Austen departing and Storm Bolero coming in, I thought I would head down to Brighton Marina in the hope that the entire Seabird population of the English Channel would be sheltering among the yachts. This of course was wildly optimistic, though I was surprised to find absolutely nothing!! Luckily a showy Rock Pipit and a pair of Peregrines gave me a bit to take pictures of!! 

A couple of loved up Pigeons on the car park fence

Sunrise over the Masts

Pied Wagtail, heard several but they weren't very cooperative today

Cormorant, not even many of these about today, 3 or 4

The resident Yellow-legged Gull not doing much!

Sea was quite rough, several Surfers having fun, but no Seabirds on it at all that I could find!

Very friendly Rock Pipit

Fairly cocky, strutting around, considering instant death was sat on the cliffs 40 foot above it!!

Male Peregrine, showing well!!

Very used to Humans, not phased by the many joggers and dog walkers going by below!

Female Peregrine

Showing even lower down, equally unphased by the human traffic below

I think he was considering whether it was worth the effort to try and catch the Rock Pipit 

The female seem disgruntled when the male flew off and soon headed off after him!

Last minute look around

And she's off!

They are awesome birds !!!

With the clouds gathering I decided to head back, still no Seabirds, the East Arm was shut, due to "Health & Safety gone mad" so I couldn't check out any Purple Sandpipers! Though a Jogger did jump the barrier, but my back opted not to emulate him! The YLG was still on the roof but doing even less!

Asleep!

 A few more pics of the Pegs

Our Swifts 2026

 All three of my regular readers will remember, that much to our delight, during  Summer 2025 our Swift box successfully fledged a chick, this summer we added a new box with two chambers, the box was supplied by the Hurst Rethink, financed by the  Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) Some stats sent to me by the Hurst Swift Guru, Rebecca, who drives the project locally

"Since 2023  we have put up about  48 swift boxes  plus there are more that house owners also installed themselves We ,Hurst Rethink group , applied to SOS for funding grants 3 times and we bought the boxes and call systems from Peak Boxes 

In 2023 we had one nesting pair

In 2024 4 nesting pairs

In 2025  9 nesting pairs

In 2026  20 nesting pairs

These numbers include natural nest sites in gables that I know of across the village 

Hard to say exactly how many chicks fledged this year as no one has nest cameras ,  but I observed 20 nests with chicks this year 

Most nests had one chick  some had 2  so probably about  25 to 30  chicks fledged"

More info from the various organisations involved at the links belowed

SOS Swifts and Hirundines

Hurst Rethink

If you would like to know more about the lives of  Swifts there is some info at the link below, they are pretty amazing!!

Swifts

Not a bad increase one pair to 20 pairs in just 3 years . What presumably was our  pair from the previous year, returned quite quickly and set up home, we were a bit worried as House Sparrows had occupied the box, but they must have got their youngsters out early, before the Swifts arrived  as we didn't find any ousted nestlings under the box, apparently the Swifts  can be quite brutal in turfing out intruders!! 

One of our pair giving us the eye early doors, sadly at no point did I get a pic of the Swifts returning to the box, they simply refused to hang off the ladder, diving straight in at about 100mph!!

The new box didn't get occupied although the "Bangers" did show some interest and I did on one occasion observe a bird fly into the new box, so fingers crossed for next year! Bangers are young non-breeding birds that are looking for a site to occupy in the future, they regularly banged our females box and I observed several bits of argy-bargy with one bird flying into to her box and having to be forcibly removed! She weren't messing around it was pretty brutal. Obviously I'm not watching 24hrs a day so how often birds checked out the new box or tested our girls patience I don't know! Though Margie did report seeing lots mid-afternoons on her days off work!

Overall this year was a little strange the birds seemed to disappear for long periods and the majority seemed to leave earlier than usual, I suppose the long dry Summer may be responsible for that! 

Not 100% sure of the date our youngster left. But we did hear the rapid  beating of wings against the walls of the box several times, as the young-un strengthened it's flight muscles before it departed. 

Our Youngster, surveying the big wide world before it's leap for freedom! Shame about the poop spoiling the aesthetic of the picture! 

Amazing to think just a few weeks after this pic our little-un will be flying around Southern Africa, providing he/she doesn't get killed by one of the many hazards they face, we've got our fingers crossed for the little guy!

So what about my efforts getting pics of these winged wonders, I had high hopes for this season, my new set-up with, automatic tracking would surely give me more chance than last year! There are many problems trying to get pics of Swifts, firstly they are blooming quick! Cruising Speed of 70mph and capable of topping a ton!! They also, sadly, don't fly in straight lines, despite me having the reactions of a fighter pilot, I am knocking on a bit! Also specific to our situation, our planting for wildlife means we have a large Hawthorn, a tall Bird Cheery and an even taller Rowan. While this has the advantage of shielding me from most of the neighbours, it must seem a bit strange to see me running about with a camera and a large lens, swearing a lot, it means I don't get much warning of when the birds are going to appear, generally there are two scenarios either the birds are high up, which means I can get them but the are too small in the pics or they are too low which means I see them late and struggle to get on them at all! There is a sweet spot where they are just the right height and moving at just the right speed, but they seemed to ignore that area, possibly out of spite or bloody mindedness!! I spent several evenings trying for pics with pretty poor results!! I know what you're thinking "he's just getting his excuses in early" and you'd be right!!! I haven't even mentioned the difficulties with the light and how heavy the camera set up is!!

All in all I spent many happy evenings watching and trying to get pictures of the Swifts as they flew about the the village screaming at the tops of their Lungs, one minute there would 30 zooming between the houses, the next minute they would be tiny specks high in the sky! 

Anyway the best of my efforts below!

Think this is about the best I did

An insect about to meet it's maker

I love Swifts, they are probably my favourite bird, where I used to live in Suffolk there was a big colony on the local church and I would spend many an evening watching up to a hundred Swifts zooming about screaming, we are not quite there yet in Hurst, think the most I counted in one go this year was 52, but at our present rate of expansion it hopefully won't be long! Sadly this season I never really got the perfect shot! on the plus side there is always next year!!!