Pacific Swift - ten years on...

Pacific Swift - Jonny Holliday original - owned by me - not for sale

*Epilogue* I mean no one is saying this is the coolest find ever. But how many other finds have resulted in someone permanently scarring their body? Stand up Lee Woods aka @BinsBirder

So, ten years ago today - a decade of aggression. The difference between the end of my twenties and the end of my thirties! Yep, it is ten years to the day since I rose to the top of the pile as probably the best birder to find a mega, whilst walking his beloved Staffie, in Suffolk on 15th June 2013.

First up, here is the account I gave to the SORC for publication in the 2013 Suffolk Bird Report:

Saturday June 15th 2013 is a date now firmly lodged in my mind. I don’t suppose I will find such a celebrated bird again in my birding ‘career’ and I am genuinely heartened that so many people were subsequently able to connect with the Pacific Swift during its two day stay.

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jeff Higgott

At the time of writing there are only six accepted records of Pacific Swift in Britain; as was pointed out to me on the day by Landguard Bird Observatory warden Nigel Odin; ‘it is not often you’ll find a bird that has occurred less than ten times in Britain’.

I had seen a Pacific Swift previously albeit more than 4,500 miles away on a different continent! Perhaps having seen Pacific Swift during my 2009 Eaglenest (Arunachal Pradesh, India) tour helped with my confidence in identifying the Trimley bird, but it was showing extremely well when initially located.

That I had to travel so far for my first Pacific Swift experience is telling as the species traditionally winters around south Australia, returning north and east in the spring to a breeding area that stretches from India in the west through to China and Siberia in the east. Normally they'd complete this journey between April and June, depending how far north they were travelling, so it is possible that the Trimley bird had travelled from the Far East earlier in 2013. Another hypothesis is that the individual I found at Trimley is a returning bird circulating with ‘our’ (Common) Swifts each year. This theory was aired in the now defunct Birding World (26 (6): 244–247) based on the 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2013 sightings at Spurn, East Yorkshire. Either way, a/the Pacific Swift made a very impressive cross-continental trek!

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jeff Higgott

Given the sheer scale of the journey and the flying prowess of Swifts it is hard to surmise that weather could have caused it to head north and west instead of north and east. However, stranger things have happened and will continue to happen in the avian world! In a co-authored article I did with Adam Gretton (joint finder, with Mark Cocker, of the Harris White-throated Needletail) about both the Pacific Swift and the needletail for ‘The Harrier’ Adam identified some potential weather events as follows:

“What I have been able to deduce from information online is that there was some exceptional weather in west Siberia in early June 2013. On 2nd June there was heavy snow in Kemerovo, a city only 55N, which is used to warm summers. Events in Nadym, further north, made the BBC weather round-up two weeks later. On 12th June the temperature reached 28C, but just two days later an arctic cold front reduced this to zero, with heavy snow. Could this very unusual circumstance have played some part in pushing these two strays westwards, perhaps in combination with other factors? The exceptional Siberian summer continued in July and August, with huge fires followed by floods in east Siberia."

An equally valid theory and some great research form Adam.

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jason Ward

Although published online, in Birdwatching Magazine and also the aforementioned Harrier article I include a brief summary of my fining the Pacific Swift for completeness:

With my girlfriend in Ipswich for the day I took the opportunity to do one of my favorite walks in the county: Levington Marina to Trimley Marshes SWT and back. There are always birds to be seen and it’s a great walk for both the dog and me. I think most Suffolk birders were on ‘Swift alert’ at this time following a record of a ‘white-rumped swift’ at Bawdsey at the end of May; the resulting blurred photo was inconclusive but certainly exciting! Some observers are now apparently confident that the bird at Bawdsey was a Pacific Swift, having got better views than those captured on the images. Whether the earlier bird was the real deal or a convincing aberration it was rewarding to locate an unequivocal Pacific Swift a couple of weeks later.

I had not long entered the first hide (as you approach from Levington) and opened the flap when I noticed hundreds of Swifts hawking over the reed bed and scrapes. One immediately stood out as having a white rump! Thereafter things moved initially very quickly; views were sufficiently good to see the breast scaling and the white rump looked far too well defined to be a plumage aberration - it was the real deal! Confident I called the news into Bird Information and also tweeted the sighting. At this point, time seemed to slow down! It took an age for the next observers to arrive, even though they had only come from the other side of the dock complex at Landguard and Felxistowe! After about 45 minutes the hide filled up, photos were taken and smiles adorned many faces!

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jason Ward

With the record secured the hound and I took our leave and headed back towards Trimley. It was an odd walk; despite how peaceful it was I knew I had left chaos in my wake! This was even reported by the mainstream press as police had to manage the assembling masses and abandoned cars in Trimley St Mary!

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jason Ward

So aside from the elation of finding a true mega, I have now had time to reflect more widely on the find. Notably, of the literally hundreds of observers only 18 recorded the bird directly into BirdTrack; 11 on the Saturday and 7 on the Sunday. I cannot take the moral high ground however because I wasn’t one of them! In my defence I was, however, a little flustered by proceedings and I do routinely BirdTrack when on my patch. BirdTrack is an excellent tool and an invaluable way of making your records count for science and conservation. Complete lists (records of all species identified on a visit to a site) are particularly useful because they give a measure of effort and absence (i.e. what was not detected and recorded, which can be used to track arrival and departure times). A complete list collected whilst on a twitch is no less valuable than any other and it would be great to see more Suffolk birders/twitchers getting on board.

I’ve also pondered whether the Trimley Pacific Swift was one and the same as the bird logged in Spain. The rare birds Spain website states that “one was reported and record-shot photographed at A Frouxeira lagoon, Valdoviño, A Coruña on 23rd June (Xabier Prieto).” Eight days is more than sufficient for a Pacific Swift to travel from Suffolk to Spain. As the ‘Swift Geolocater Project’ has shown a Common Swift ringed in Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire overnight 21/22 July 2010 had reached central Spain by 26th July!

There is some debate as to whether it was a first for Suffolk however, following an exhausted individual found on a Happisburgh (Norfolk) oilrig and then helicoptered(!) to Beccles Heliport just the correct side of the border. This was also a June bird, the 19th June 1981 to be precise and was released from Beccles Heliport to be seen the next day to the south west at Shadingfield. I am all for ship assisted records but I feel this human intervention is a step to far in terms of the bird naturally occurring in Suffolk airspace!

Finally, on a personal note 2013 was an excellent year for Suffolk birding. I decided to loosely focus on a County year list, which translated into making a few more trips to the coast and keeping a tally of birds on Bubo. I saw a number of ‘lifers’ in the County including the stunning Landguard Subalpine Warbler in April.

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jason Ward

My fondest memories of that day are all the people I spoke to on the phone having extracted and gone to meet my girlfriend in Ipswich. I sat by the car, drinking tinnies in the sun and chatting to - amongst others - the late, great Martin Garner. He loved it and here is the resulting post that went up on his Birding Frontiers website:

I say Pacific you say… SWIFT!

Pacific…

Pacific…

Pacific…

SWIFT! …. SWIFT! …. SWIFT!

Ah, that’s better.

Having co-found the Minsmere Savi’s last month I thought I’d best get out and find another goodie in June. Sadly Mal wasn’t with me today and I cannot get hold of him!

If anyone has seen / heard from a bespectacled gent, birding around East Anglia and answering to the name of Mal – please tell him to drop me a line!

With the galfiend working in Ippy all day I fancied a good peep or even a Shrike on the walk from Levington to Trimley Marshes and back.

Didn’t manage either of those ‘targets’ but I’ll settle for the Swift.

We (the hound & me) arrived at the first hide, the most northerly of the three adjacent to the Orwell embankment mid morning. I entered the and met volunteer warden David. Together we scanned over the scrape and enjoyed Avocet, Teal and belter views of a female Marsh Harrier.

Fends - my constant companion till November 2020 - miss you pup

Ever since a grainy shot of a ‘Swift sp’ went up on the BINS site last month I’ve been checking Swifts religiously. Over work, Livermere, the house – anywhere!

As I chatted with Dave I scanned through the Swifts unbelievably one had a white rump!

At this stage I went into fibrillations – surely it wasn’t – it must be a abberative common? But it looks so f’in good?

It looked just like the Pacifics I watched over Nameri a few years ago. I was sure enough to call Bird Information and blurt out the salient features to an unsuspecting Charlie Moores!

With the news out I eagerly waited out the age it took for people to finally arrive!

When they did I was massively relieved – the I.D. was correct and with the sound of cameras clicking away I left the birds to the crowds.

Walking back to the car I met my good friend Lee who was scoping the bird from the embankment. It was only when he told me it was a lifer and his 499th UK bird I realised the enormity of it!

Basically despite the 6 accepted records in Britain for those that missed the Cley bird 20 years ago it’s the first chance of a grip back!

Pacific Swift - Trimley Marshes, Jason Ward

I am delighted that so many people have been able to connect. From Suffolk birders to big-listers and from Wakefield and beyond!

Happy birding one and all.

Cheers ta,

Jonny

One of my treasured memories from this find is chatting with Martin and his post going up on Birding Frontiers so quickly. It's heart warming and a little emotional reading back his words;

Met Jonny Rankin as he joined us for the March 2013 Gullfest.

Hugely likable chap with wicked sense of humour. Big smile came across many faces upon seeing it was Jonny who had found it. The most memorable endeavours on the‘Foot-it challenge’ in January were those of Jonny. Now one of the most memorable finds of June 2013 will be this bird. Delighted for him. Birding really is about both the birds andthe people.

Same as Spurn?

Sort of the first assumption. It must be the same bird as the one at Spurn. Maybe, maybe not. As Jonny mentioned there had already been a sighting of a credible candidate in Suffolk. Is there a colony shy group of 100’s (probably several 1000’s) of mostly 1st summer Common Swifts doing a circular feeding movement that covers most of the English East Coast – or are there 2 birds?

and one of Jonny celebrating this evening…