Pacific Swift – Cley Norfolk Naturalist’s Trust Reserve, Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, 30th May 1993
Dashing around the skies of Cley - in amongst a large flock of congeners (sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity of using that word). Magic!!!
As the weekend involved was a Bank Holiday weekend I was flying south on Friday the 28th May before flying north on Wednesday the 2nd June. Perfect. A long weekend........ .
So it was (I’m sure nights at The Farriers, etc., were involved, but...) at least until the news of a Pacific Swift at Cley came through on the pager at around mid-morning on Sunday the 30th May.
I immediately relayed the news to Mike, or, in his stead, to Susie; Mike was out.
Then I panicked. At this time I didn’t have a car; I didn’t really need one, as I was rarely at home, and when in South Queensferry I had my trusty little AMEC van. So how was I going to get there? There was the option of borrowing Gary’s car, as had been discussed during a brief flurry of interest in the Bridled Tern in Northamptonshire the previous day.
But wait, there was a voicemail message from Mike on my answerphone relating to the same bird and suggesting that if I wanted to go I should ‘phone Marcus Brew and providing his ‘phone number. That was it!
I was quickly able to locate and manage to play the message (which was fortunately still there!) and take down the number. I immediately ‘phoned Marcus who suggested he was interested but others were otherwise engaged, and he would get back to me. Some while (a short while!!) he ‘phoned back, and suggested he was, "Keen to go". Ten minutes later he picked me up on the railway overbridge next to St. Albans railway station (a location he knew he could find me at!).
It was about 11:50. We journeyed towards Norfolk buoyed by news on the pager, whilst also guilt-panged about leaving Mike behind. Susie had informed me he was out at a garden centre, and Marcus and I quickly realised that trailing around random garden centres looking for him wasn’t a sensible option when it was a swift we were twitching. This was prior to the convenience of mobile ‘phones very obviously.
Under the circumstances it was a sedate drive, with no hold-ups, although we diverted off the normal route to avoid potential delays due to an airshow at Duxford. All there way there Marcus and I were getting more and more confident as successive messages, "Pacific Swift still....." came through and I duly relayed them to Marcus. We could not believe a swift would hang around for so long. But it was doing!! As we got close we thrashed through Wiveton and Cley-next-the-Sea.
But where to park? Lots of birders were already present so cars were abandoned everywhere, but once again Marcus handled the problem of parking in a very matter of fact way. The gallery was (strangely?) spread along the high points alongside the coast road. Marcus and I briskly jogged and walked from Old Woman’s Lane towards the main point at which birders were gathered beyond the public hide. Once there we were confronted by a blizzard of swifts feeding low over the marsh, as we had noted swifts had been on our journey to Cley. But which was it? I luckily picked up on the white-rump, and commentated Marcus onto it despite the distances and extremely mobile moves of the bird involved. It was, as were the rest of the flock, feeding low over the reed-beds and water, and once it had been located it could be picked out quite easily. Having got views (and severe arm ache!) a move to near to the Irene Hide produced much better and closer views in the scudding light as showers passed through.
It had longer wings than Swift, but otherwise it appeared to be generally similar. It had a white horseshoe rump, and a more extensive pale throat (and pale forehead) than Swift. The tail was forked – and a bit like the ‘tuning fork’ shape of Red-rumped Swallow in effect.
Wow-wee!!!!!
Once it disappeared we decided to leave, and memorably suffered a puncture within a very few miles of Cley. It was just as well it didn’t happen on the way there.
I’m sure both Marcus and I continued to feel guilty about abandoning Mike despite his reassurances we had done the right thing. All the same, I was very pleased to hear that Mike had caught up with the one at Trimley Marshes in June 2016 – all the better for being in his adopted home county of Suffolk.
Under the circumstances it was a sedate drive, with no hold-ups, although we diverted off the normal route to avoid potential delays due to an airshow at Duxford. All there way there Marcus and I were getting more and more confident as successive messages, "Pacific Swift still....." came through and I duly relayed them to Marcus. We could not believe a swift would hang around for so long. But it was doing!! As we got close we thrashed through Wiveton and Cley-next-the-Sea.
But where to park? Lots of birders were already present so cars were abandoned everywhere, but once again Marcus handled the problem of parking in a very matter of fact way. The gallery was (strangely?) spread along the high points alongside the coast road. Marcus and I briskly jogged and walked from Old Woman’s Lane towards the main point at which birders were gathered beyond the public hide. Once there we were confronted by a blizzard of swifts feeding low over the marsh, as we had noted swifts had been on our journey to Cley. But which was it? I luckily picked up on the white-rump, and commentated Marcus onto it despite the distances and extremely mobile moves of the bird involved. It was, as were the rest of the flock, feeding low over the reed-beds and water, and once it had been located it could be picked out quite easily. Having got views (and severe arm ache!) a move to near to the Irene Hide produced much better and closer views in the scudding light as showers passed through.
It had longer wings than Swift, but otherwise it appeared to be generally similar. It had a white horseshoe rump, and a more extensive pale throat (and pale forehead) than Swift. The tail was forked – and a bit like the ‘tuning fork’ shape of Red-rumped Swallow in effect.
Wow-wee!!!!!
Once it disappeared we decided to leave, and memorably suffered a puncture within a very few miles of Cley. It was just as well it didn’t happen on the way there.
I’m sure both Marcus and I continued to feel guilty about abandoning Mike despite his reassurances we had done the right thing. All the same, I was very pleased to hear that Mike had caught up with the one at Trimley Marshes in June 2016 – all the better for being in his adopted home county of Suffolk.
Pacific Swift,
Cley NNT Reserve, Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, May 1993 (photographer unknown)
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