A Swift One

Spent the afternoon down Elland filming Swifts........or at least trying to........which reminded me that Calderdale Bird Conservation Group are collating information on Swift Breeding colonies.
We need your records.....and now is a good time to go out looking for nest sites in the evening.
In Manchester, I lived in the middle of a colony and the birds would fly round the houses almost at head height just before the sun went down. They would get lower and lower and the noise would get louder and louder until, one by one, they disappeared into their nest holes.
These were old red brick Victorian merchants buildings, and the birds would find missing bricks or small crevices behind fascia boards, or would use ledges behind the soffits on the gable ends. Quite a spectacle on a warm summers evening.
I had at least 100 Swifts over the ski lake this afternoon. They're going to be nesting somewhere nearby.