having spend a few more hours this afternoon scanning the 300+ swifts and 100+ House Martins (new arrivals) feeding over the pits I was again struck by the conundrum that is finding a rare swift on your local patch. Over 30 years during May-August I have spent a ridiculous amount of time scanning through swifts on my local patch in the hope of picking up an Alpine or something better! in that time I have seen at least 6 birds with some white in the plumage including three with white rumps and a very striking bird (pics above) seen in two successive springs late April 2004 and May 5th 2005 (rather poor pictures above) but never an Alpine; in June 1977 I found a Pallid Swift which just failed to make it as a British first, probably a correct decision on a non-photod single observer first, and in 1998 a Little Swift which about 200 people managed to see in its one afternoon stay on the pits; the latter bird was found not while looking through swifts but hiding from a thunderstorm in a hide watching a Common Tern nest! ---I have attached the agony and trauma of the latter find below as written at the time
Little Swift at Barton pits June 26th 1998
On the afternoon of June 26th I was trying to mop up any outstanding broods of wildfowl to complete the annual breeding survey of the clay pits. Dodging the regular thundery showers I found myself sitting in the hide which looks westwards over Barrow Haven reedbed at about 14-30 hrs as yet another downpour threatened to engulf the local environs. Scanning across the pit I realised that the Common Tern, sitting on its nest on a brick pillar in the next pit to the west, about 700m away, was visible from the hide; at least it would save me the trouble of walking through 700m of wet grass to check on their progress. It was at this point that I realised there were good numbers of Swifts feeding low over the Humber embankment which borders the next pit, pit25, beyond the ski pit where the terns were nesting.
With over twenty years of regular summer swift scrutiny already having passed without reward, the news of three Alpine Swift fly bys at Spurn, in recent weeks, had inspired renewed swift watching but as usual to no avail. June 26th was not intended as a swift watching day but events suddenly took a turn swift-wards as a bird with a bright white rump literally flew through my scopes field of view at over 1km range. The view was so brief I initially suspected that I had glimpsed a House Martin in strange light and had missed the white underparts. The day was thundery, with dark brooding black clouds passing quickly north-eastwards, intermixed with bright sunny spells and some glaring skyscapes. A quick scan soon revealed the bird again; it showed a bright white rump and appeared to have a contrast of blackish belly and silvery underwings but in size it was difficult to judge just how big it was at 1km range, as it did not appear strikingly different to the swifts nearby although judging which individuals were close to it was hard enough at such a range and with such fast moving birds.
At this point panic set in. In my past swift studies I had located three swifts with white rumps, one with a white belly and a couple with a variety of white areas elsewhere in the plumage but this bird looked too precise and distinct to suggest an partial albino swift and its immediate jizz was more reminiscent of a Little Swift. I needed to get a closer view but the options were all fraught with problems and all relied upon the bird staying put which given the fast moving thunder showers and the rapid movements of swift flocks in association therewith, seemed hopeful at best. Of the three possibilities a run/walk along the 1km of bank would have left me one, exhausted and two having to walk that distance back plus more to alert other observers; driving 1.5 miles round to the next access point westwards would get me about 300m closer but take a good 5 minutes and driving right round to the location where the bird was feeding, a good 5 miles by road would take at least 10 minutes but would pass close to a phone box en route. Option two won and after a quick 200m jog back to the car I raced down the rough tracks to the ski pit access and quickly relocated the swift albeit still 700m away. At this range with a 30x scope however, I could see a broad white rump, short square ended tail and shorter more rounded tipped wings than the nearby swifts. I was convinced it was a Little Swift, not considering any similar African swifts, and thus set off on the 5 mile epic to get even closer. Calling at a phone box (this was pre-mobile phones) on the way I suffered a complete mental block on phone numbers and with just 30p in change got one answer phone, a very dippy pager operator and a BLNE answer phone where I left a message to the effect that I thought it best going out as a probable until I made 100% certain; shadows of large seagulls hung over the phone box. Eventually arriving by the sailing pit at about 15-10 hrs a desperate search failed to turn up any sign of the bird and 10 minutes later it had still not materialised. Then suddenly there it was low over the Humber bank, coming towards me in bright light backed by a black sky giving unbeatable views. It fed over the water on pit25 for about 20 minutes and then as the sun came out it began to climb with the swifts and I lost sight of it as it passed across the sun. At this point no-one I phoned had appeared and nothing had come on the pager so I begged the use of a phone in the sailing club and rang birdline. Again no response! I thus returned to the bird and failed to relocate it by 15-50 but then it again appeared over the pit where I watched it to 16-04 when it again disappeared. With still no response from any birders I decided to return home and ring round more people plus I had my daughter to collect from nursery and due to the mental block could not remember when!
Back home at 17-10 hrs a phone call came in saying the swift could not be found in spite of 30 minutes searching. I headed back down to the pits on my bike and just as I arrived it was relocated flying back in from the Barrow Haven direction. It was then seen almost continually with odd short absences until about 19-15 (I left the site at 18-40) when heavy rain set in for over an hour after which it was not seen again.
The number of swifts present on 26th was certainly higher than in recent days with over 500 estimated compared to about 300 over the last 2-3 weeks and it would appear that the Little Swift arrived with a mobile flock of common swifts in association with the thundery weather system affecting the area at the time.
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