Pacific Swift Annual Summary 2016

G’day Bird enthusiasts

Two months ago I had the joy of attending the bi-annual Swift conference in Poland, where the main theme of the presentations was how to bring Common Swifts back to the cities of Europe. However, I learnt from British researchers that there is a population of Common Swifts living in the temples of Beijing, that instead of migrating with the nearby Pacific (Fork-tailed) swifts down to Australia, fly west to Europe, passing north of the Himalayas then flying down to SW Africa. These birds start way east of their European conspecifics and end up further south than them. This is a marathon journey – perhaps illustrating that their genetic program is stronger than their social connections to their neighbours that come south to Australia.

Hope you enjoy learning something from this year’s summary report below:

Pacific (Fork-tailed) Swift (Apus pacificus) Report for 2015/16 Season.

[Summary of 397 sightings sent to me or published where I could find them]

This year 39 fewer reports were made than last year.

A few over-wintering birds were reported from Qld during June. Russell McGreggor saw 4 near Townsville and Adrian Walsh saw an uncounted number at Cattana Wetlands. Early sightings included 10 birds seen on 11 September in Sydney by George Rid, 1+ at Cattana Wetlands, Qld 21 Sep by Adrian Walsh, 8 at Broome Bird Obs 24 Sep by Nigel Jackett, and 8 seen the following day at Lee Pt (NT) by Luke Paterson. These were not going to be the same birds so it appears a smattering were spread out over several states very early on.

Again the first sighting of large flocks was made by Peter Kyne but this year on the Daly not the Adelaide River (last year’s first) SE of Darwin, where he saw 1,000 23 Nov. In Feb Kath Shurcliff saw 2,000 at Elim Beach and Doug Herrington saw 2,500 at Shannonvale, both sightings in Queensland. This state provided most of the sightings for the season.

All told only 26 sightings were reported from WA (45 last year), 49 from NT (41), 179 from Qld (219), 86 from NSW (86, yes same # as last yr), 12 from ACT (2), 26 from Vic (33). 16 sightings were made in SA (11) & 1 in Tas (1). So were most of the birds in Qld, or was it just that most observers with their eyes open were again in Qld this year?

The first Vic report that was most likely from new arrivals was of 1 bird seen at Port Campbell N.P. on 25th Nov. by Megan Kramer. The largest flocks seen in Victoria were 200+ birds seen by Dan Eyles at Kings Billabong. The last ones seen in Vic were 8 on 12 Mar at Jan Juc recorded by Russell Woodford and 1 bird seen at Sandy Waterhole Rd, also 12 Mar by Angus Hartshorn.

The first SA reports were by Michaela & Nathaniel Doecke of 180 and 10 at Point Stuart. The last sighting reported for SA was of 50 birds on 14 Mar at Merna Mora Station, reported by Enid Pascoe

One of the consequences these swifts face in feeding over the drier parts of Australia is that the food supply quickly runs out and they have to move on. This means unlike Needletail observations, very few observers make more than three sightings. This means it is even more important that each observer report their one or two observations, so we can fill out the picture a little. Thank you all very much for doing so, and reporting the numbers seen.

Observers who made more than three observations were: ANDERSON, David (4), ARMSTRONG, Doug (5), ATTEWELL, Chris (10), BEAVIS, Sarah (5), CAREY, Mark (4), CARTER, Mike (5), COWAN, Ian (7), DICK, Adrian (8), DOUGHTY, Robert (10), EZZY, Len & Chris (4), FLUMM, Dave (5), GILL, Norton (4), HERRINGTON, Doug (5), KYNE, Peter (27), LARSON, Helen (18), McGREGOR, Russell (5), PEARSON, John (7), RICHARDSON, Alan (4), RUDDER, Ashwin (7), SHURCLIFF, Kath (10), WALSH, Adrian (6 ).

Most of us did not make that many observations but I still value & thank all these contributors:

ACTON, Marlene (1), ALLSOP, John (2), APRENDE, Lili (1), ARVIN, Mark (1), BARKER, Potta (1), BARWELL, Graham (3), BENSON, Alan (2), BENSON, Ian (1), BINNS, (1), BOOTH, Cliff (1), BRAUN, David (1), BRITTAIN, R. (2), BROCKMAN, Penny (1), BROOKS, Tayler (1), CACHARD, Martin (2), CALDECOTT, Keith (1), CANNON, Pippy & Norton (2), CARLSON, Ashley (1), CARSON, Nick (2), CARTER, Mark (1), CASBURN, Jean (3), CASWELL, Don (3), CATT, Graeme (1), CONOLE, Laurie (1), COOPER, Dick (1), CRAIG, Markus (2), CRAWFORD, Alan (1), CROSBY, Deb (1), CROSSLAND, Mick (2), CUNNINGHAM, Steve (2), DAHLEM, Michael (1), DALY, Gus (1), DASHPER, Stuart & Jono (1), DAVEY, Chris (1), DEANS, Brian (1), DICKSON, James (1), DOECKE, Michela (1), DOECKE, Nathaniel (3), DOWLING, Bill (1), ENGEL, Deryk (1), EVERIST, Peter (2), EYLES, Dan. (1), FAZIO III, Victor (1), FELSTEAD, Michael (1), FIELD, Tim (1), FORSOOTH, Wilbur (1), FOTHERGILL, Duane (1), FRANKS, Rick & Felicia (2), GARDNER, Marc (2), GARLAND, Clive (1), GERMECH, Oakley (1),GILFEDDER, Mat. (1), GREGORY, Phil (1), GRIMSHAW, Paul (1), GULLY,? (1), GWYTHER, John (1), HAMILTON, Rob & Vicki (1), HARPER, David (1), HARRIS, Richard (2), HARTSHORN, Angus (3), HATTINGH, Tanya & Jan (1), HAWTIN, Alec (3), HENSEN, Bastian (2), HILL, Dennis (2), HINZE, Matt. (2), HIRSCH, Catherine (2), HOFFMANN, Ben (1), HOLLIE, David (1), HORLER, Peter (1), HORWOOD, ? (2), INGWERSEN, Dean (1), JACKETT, Nigel. (3), JACKSON, Luke (1), JACKSON, Micha (2), JARVIS, Mike & Jenny (1), JERRAM, Mick (3), JOB, K. (1), JOHNSON, Brian & Meg (1), JONES, GEOFFREY (3), JONES, Donald (2), KENNEDY, Simon (1), KEARNS, Michael (2), KERR, Ian (3), KRAMER, Megan (1), LAMB, Russ. (1), LASHKO, John & Sue (2), LAWSON, Ben (1), LEACH, Elliot (2), LESCINSKY, David (1), LINDSAY, Kurtis (1), LONERGAN, Noel (1), LOOS, Tanya (1), LOWRY, John (3), MADVIG, Peter (1), MAURER, Golo (2), McLACHLAN, Greg (2), MEAD, David (1), MEADOWS, Clive (1), MILBURN, Peter (1), MOORHEAD, Bill & Jack (2), MORGAN, Peter & Bev (1), MORRIS, Alan (2), MORRIS, Tim (3), MURRAY, Stephen (1), MUSTAFA, James (1), MUTTON, Troy (1), NANKIVELL, James (1), NAUMANN, Andrew (3), NEALON, Clive (1), NEWMAN, Mark (2), NEWNHAM ? (1), NILAND, David (1), NOVOA, Diana (1), O’SHEA, Jim (1), O’SULLIVAN Max (2), PALMER, Beau (2), PALMER, Bob (1), PASCOE, Enid (1), PATERSON, Luke (1), PIERCE, Ed (2), PORT, Christina (1), PRESTON, Ivor (1), RAWSTHORNE, John (2), RAWSTHORNSTONE, John (1), REIDY, John (2), RID, George (1), ROBINO, Janet (1), RODERICK, Mick (1), ROLLAND, Viv (3), ROPER, Marion (1), ROSS, Chris (1), ROSS, Laurie (3), ROWER, David & Michelle (1), ROWER, Michelle & David (2), SARNA, Julie & Ross (1), SANDERSON, Chris (1), SCHMIDT, Tom (1), SHAW, Greg & Georgie (2), SHELLEY, Paul (1), SKIPSEY, Roger (1), SMITH, Ross (2), SPRY, Jenny (1), STEVENS, Warren (2), STRONG, Michael (1), TARRANT, Tom (1), TAYLOR, Paul (2), TIERNEY, Peter (1), TON, Brother (2), TRANTER, Ged (1), TURNBULL, Ray (2), TURNER, Paul (1), VALENTINE, Peter (2), VAN DYK, Delene & Danie (2), W, Shorty (1), WARD, Cameron (1), WEBBER, Jordan (1), WHARTON, Joan (3), WHITING, Jack (1), WILEY, Chris (2), WILLIS, Michael (2), WILSON, Tom (2), WITTEN, Lew (1), WOODFORD, Russell (1), WOODS, Sam & Wes (1).

Information Sources

Australian Birds (1), Birdlife Atlas (41), Birding-Aus (5), Birdline (24), Birdpedia (3), birdssa The Birder (7), Birds Qld (0), birdswa (4), cairnsbirds (0), Canberrabirds (2), Contact Call (0), Direct e-mail (115), eBird (250), FSCB (0), hunterbirding (5), Mornington Peninsula Birdlife (1), ntbirds (5), ntnaturalist (0), Plains Wanderer (0), Rainbowbird Newsltr (2) The Twitcher (0), toowoombabirdobservers (0),