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#7302 From: "Amnonn Hahn" <hahn@...>
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:51 pm
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] A foundation is born 		amnonnhahhn
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 

CONGRATULATIONS !

Dear Hans,

Congratulations for establishing the Dutch Swift Foundation!

Keep up the good work.

 

All the best,

Amnonn

"FRIENDS OF THE SWIFTS ASSOCIATION" - Israel

 

 

From: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of hanswillem65
Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 14:54
To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] A foundation is born

 

 

Hello to All,

In Holland I have established a foundation. It is a foundation specificly for the Common Swift. My main goal is to get placed as much nestboxes as possible and to create as much as possible nesting places in building projects or renovation jobs. What ever. In my working space I have built up a network with contractors, architects etc.

The website is not completely ready yet but on air.

www.bvgz.nl

Kind regards

Hans
www.bvgz.nl
www.gierzwaluwkolonieregulierstraathaarlem.nl


Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (2)
#7301 From: "hanswillem65" <hanswillem65@...>
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:54 pm
Subject: A foundation is born 		hanswillem65
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
  
Hello to All,

In Holland I have established a foundation. It is a foundation specificly for
the Common Swift. My main goal is to get placed as much nestboxes as possible
and to create as much as possible nesting places in building projects or
renovation jobs. What ever. In my working space I have built up a network with
contractors, architects etc.

The website is not completely ready yet but on air.

www.bvgz.nl

Kind regards

Hans
www.bvgz.nl
www.gierzwaluwkolonieregulierstraathaarlem.nl

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (2)
#7300 From: Common Swift <northern_swift@...>
Date: Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:37 am
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts etc. in Tanzania 		northern_swift
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Dear James,

your description of the vespertine ascension is similar to the many we have from the breeding grounds here in Europe. Its the first time I ever heard of this. This is a big piece in the puzzle of the picture of the Common Swift.

Kind regards
Ulrich
Commonswift Worldwide
http://www.commonswift.org.il
APUSlife. The online Journal for the Commonswift
http://www.commonswift.org/APUSlife.html

I love their harsh scream, perhaps, almost as well as the melody of the Brake Nightingale.
Neville Wood 1837


--- On Wed, 11/18/09, James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...> wrote:

From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...>
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts etc. in Tanzania
To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 9:49 PM

 

Hello there,

A little more writing about today's observations of Swifts, Swallows
and Martins in Arusha in Tanzania, equatorial East Africa, can be
found here:

http://birds. intanzania. com/birding- arusha-termites- migrants

PS:
Common Swifts frequently scream in Africa; certainly they were very
widespread and vocal during the previous major El Nino in early
January 2007. They could be seen and heard each evening towering
slowly upwards 'screaming' into the dusk sky above the beach at
Emayani 10km south of Pangani, in Tanga region.
It seemed to us that they were returning to the vicinity of the
mainland each evening from their diurnal feeding sorties over the sea
channel and presumably over Unguja island itself (i.e. the main island
of Zanzibar) lying some 35km to the east south east of Emayani.

Yours as ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds. intanzania. com

Twitter: @gonolek



Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (2)
#7299 From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...>
Date: Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:19 pm
Subject: Common Swifts etc. in Tanzania 		laniarius55
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
  
Hello there,

A little more writing about today's observations of Swifts, Swallows
and Martins in Arusha in Tanzania, equatorial East Africa, can be
found here:

http://birds.intanzania.com/birding-arusha-termites-migrants

PS:
Common Swifts frequently scream in Africa; certainly they were very
widespread and vocal during the previous major El Nino in early
January 2007. They could be seen and heard each evening towering
slowly upwards 'screaming' into the dusk sky above the beach at
Emayani 10km south of Pangani, in Tanga region.
It seemed to us that they were returning to the vicinity of the
mainland each evening from their diurnal feeding sorties over the sea
channel and presumably over Unguja island itself (i.e. the main island
of Zanzibar) lying some 35km to the east south east of Emayani.

Yours as ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (2)
#7298 From: Common Swift <northern_swift@...>
Date: Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:19 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Re: A.apus screaming in Africa 		northern_swift
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
  
Hi Paul,
very interesting. It looks like they were members of the non breeding reserve to
me, which arrive abt mid June in Berlin. It is good to know that they use their
voices not only in the breeding grounds, but are social outsides as well.

Re the question where is the home of Apus apus. A.m.h.o. this question is of no
importance for the Swifts, but for humans only, because it may help them to mark
the territory. Even a conclusive answer will not help the species.

Kind regards
Ulrich


--- On Sun, 11/15/09, noakespc <paul.noakes@...> wrote:

From: noakespc <paul.noakes@...>
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] Re: A.apus screaming in Africa
To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 9:22 PM

















       Hi,

in early May 2007 I had several screaming parties of up to 20 European Swift
Apus apus over rainforest at Dja southern Cameroon. I assumed they were birds
migrating north. There was certainly absolutely nowhere to nest.

It was great to hear them over the forest and then to return a few weeks later
to have them doing the same over my house.

Paul



--- In Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com, Common Swift
<northern_swift@ ...> wrote:

>

> Hi,

>

> pls read this short note abt the problem, whether or not A.apus is screaming
in Africa:

> Brooke, R. K. (1975): Breeding

> behaviour of European Swifts in Natal. The Ostrich 46: 119

> "Brooke (1971, Ostrich 42:22) stated that there was no evidence for breeding
behaviour, more particularly screaming circuses, in the European Swift Apus apus
in Africa until they were well on their way to their breeding grounds. This is
not true as subsequent observations have shown. Dowsett (in press for
Bull.Br.Orn. Club) has recorded screaming on southward passage in October on the
Zambian Nyika. On 20 January 1974 at the Kloof gorge, Natal, G.H.Nicholls and I
observed three European Swifts circus to an overhang just below our feet and
they accompanied their circusing with quiet screams. Thereafter, two birds
circused intermittently to the same point, sometimes screaming quietly and
sometimes silently and once with single "chk" notes. One of this couple gave a
solitary short Vee courtship flight."

>

> Kind regards

> Ulrich

>

> P.S. Is anyone in the SMSww, who has the Bull.Brit.Orn. Club from around this
date and can find Dowsett? I still need the full dates for the bibliography.

>

> Commonswift Worldwide

>

> http://www.commonsw ift.org.il

>

> APUSlife. The online Journal for the Commonswift

>

> http://www.commonsw ift.org/APUSlife .html

>

>

> I love their harsh scream, perhaps, almost as well as the melody of the Brake
Nightingale.

>

> Neville Wood 1837

>

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7297 From: Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...>
Date: Tue Nov 17, 2009 9:04 am
Subject: African sighting report 		lkearsley...
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Just realised that I forgot to forward this information to the forum...

On Saturday I had this report in from a colleague (BTO) in Ghana who knew I was interested. In fact I specifically asked him to keep a weather eye out for them:

"Common Swifts are actually quite common over the forest zone around Kakum National Park.
Mostly ones and twos but flocks of up to 30 seen some days too. This contrasts with no sightings at all from further north, either at Damongo or Kogyae in the forest-savanna transition zone."


Kakum is a forest park in southern Ghana famous for its forest canopy walkways. I've mailed back asking if the groups were vocalising. It occurs to me now that I should have asked what altitude the swifts were flying at, particularly with relation to the tree tops, and if they were actively feeding or passing through. I'll find out.

A Danish expedition arrives in Ghana next Monday for several weeks. I'll try to get the same service from them too.

Anybody have friends further south?



regards

Lyndon

(Belgium)

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (1)
#7296 From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...>
Date: Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:49 am
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA 		DQRZ@...
Send Email Send Email
 

Dear Ulrich

A.apus breed in the Yarmouk valley, in the rocks cliffs very very difficult.

R

 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@...
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
From: northern_swift@...
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:44:16 -0800
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 
Dear Yousef,

thanx for the info. Do you have any closer infos? Where does a.apus breed in the Yarmouk valley, in the rocks, in the rail way bridges?

Regards

Ulrich

--- On Sun, 11/15/09, Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA
To: "swallows-martins-swifts-Group" <swallows-martins-swifts-worldwide@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 12:37 PM

 


Dear Ulrich

Thanks for reply

Apus breeding in southern region of Syria, Yarmouk valley.

No any literature about it as my information.

Thanks



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail. com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 

To: Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com
From: northern_swift@ yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:19:32 -0800
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 
Dear Yousef,

very welcome to the group! I am happy that someone from the southern range of A.apus is in. This part of the range is very much underrepresented so to say.
What is the situation of Apus apus in Syria? Is there Arabic literature abt this bird? Do you know breeding places?

Kind regards

Ulrich
Berlin

--- On Fri, 11/13/09, Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL. COM> wrote:

From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL. COM>
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA
To: swallows-martins- swifts-worldwide @yahoogroups. com
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 11:41 PM

 


Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail. com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 
>> Hello,
>
> Welcome to the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group at Yahoo! Groups, a
> free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
> take a moment to review this message.
>
> To learn more about the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group, please visit
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Swallows- Martins-Swifts- Worldwide
>
> To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
> send email to
> Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com
> ************ ****
> CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!!!
> To prevent spammers, the first mail(s) of new members will be temporarily moderated (not automatically sent to the group, but read by me first). So do not be surprised that your first mail(s) do not appear. I will change this feature as soon as possible, provided you are not a spammer of course.
> ************ ****
>
> If you do not wish to belong to Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide , you may
> unsubscribe by sending an email to
> Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide -unsubscribe@ yahoogroups. com
>
> If you are leaving for a while and fear for a full box afterwards, you don't need to unsubscribe, just choose the "no mail" option in "edit my membership" on our homepage (upper right hyperlink).
>
> To see and modify all of your groups, go to
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ mygroups
>
>
> Regards, Louis-Philippe Arnhem,
>
> Moderator, Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs. yahoo.com/ info/terms/
>
>
>
>


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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7295 From: "noakespc" <paul.noakes@...>
Date: Sun Nov 15, 2009 4:52 pm
Subject: Re: A.apus screaming in Africa 		noakespc
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
  
Hi,
in early May 2007 I had several screaming parties of up to 20 European Swift
Apus apus over rainforest at Dja southern Cameroon. I assumed they were birds
migrating north. There was certainly absolutely nowhere to nest.
It was great to hear them over the forest and then to return a few weeks later
to have them doing the same over my house.
Paul

--- In Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com, Common Swift
<northern_swift@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> pls read this short note abt the problem, whether or not A.apus is screaming
in Africa:
> Brooke, R. K. (1975): Breeding
> behaviour of European Swifts in Natal. The Ostrich 46: 119
> "Brooke (1971, Ostrich 42:22) stated that there was no evidence for breeding
behaviour, more particularly screaming circuses, in the European Swift Apus apus
in Africa until they were well on their way to their breeding grounds. This is
not true as subsequent observations have shown. Dowsett (in press for
Bull.Br.Orn.Club) has recorded screaming on southward passage in October on the
Zambian Nyika. On 20 January 1974 at the Kloof gorge, Natal, G.H.Nicholls and I
observed three European Swifts circus to an overhang just below our feet and
they accompanied their circusing with quiet screams. Thereafter, two birds
circused intermittently to the same point, sometimes screaming quietly and
sometimes silently and once with single "chk" notes. One of this couple gave a
solitary short Vee courtship flight."
>
> Kind regards
> Ulrich
>
> P.S. Is anyone in the SMSww, who has the Bull.Brit.Orn.Club from around this
date and can find Dowsett? I still need the full dates for the bibliography.
>
> Commonswift Worldwide
>
> http://www.commonswift.org.il
>
> APUSlife. The online Journal for the Commonswift
>
> http://www.commonswift.org/APUSlife.html
>
>
> I love their harsh scream, perhaps, almost as well as the melody of the Brake
Nightingale.
>
> Neville Wood 1837
>

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7294 From: Common Swift <northern_swift@...>
Date: Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:52 pm
Subject: A.apus screaming in Africa 		northern_swift
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Hi,

pls read this short note abt the problem, whether or not A.apus is screaming in Africa:
Brooke, R. K. (1975): Breeding behaviour of European Swifts in Natal. The Ostrich 46: 119
"Brooke (1971, Ostrich 42:22) stated that there was no evidence for breeding behaviour, more particularly screaming circuses, in the European Swift Apus apus in Africa until they were well on their way to their breeding grounds. This is not true as subsequent observations have shown. Dowsett (in press for Bull.Br.Orn.Club) has recorded screaming on southward passage in October on the Zambian Nyika. On 20 January 1974 at the Kloof gorge, Natal, G.H.Nicholls and I observed three European Swifts circus to an overhang just below our feet and they accompanied their circusing with quiet screams. Thereafter, two birds circused intermittently to the same point, sometimes screaming quietly and sometimes silently and once with single "chk" notes. One of this couple gave a solitary short Vee courtship flight."

Kind regards
Ulrich

P.S. Is anyone in the SMSww, who has the Bull.Brit.Orn.Club from around this date and can find Dowsett? I still need the full dates for the bibliography.

Commonswift Worldwide
http://www.commonswift.org.il
APUSlife. The online Journal for the Commonswift
http://www.commonswift.org/APUSlife.html

I love their harsh scream, perhaps, almost as well as the melody of the Brake Nightingale.
Neville Wood 1837











Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7293 From: Common Swift <northern_swift@...>
Date: Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:44 am
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA 		northern_swift
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Dear Yousef,

thanx for the info. Do you have any closer infos? Where does a.apus breed in the Yarmouk valley, in the rocks, in the rail way bridges?

Regards

Ulrich

--- On Sun, 11/15/09, Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...> wrote:

From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...>
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA
To: "swallows-martins-swifts-Group" <swallows-martins-swifts-worldwide@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 12:37 PM

 

Dear Ulrich

Thanks for reply

Apus breeding in southern region of Syria, Yarmouk valley.

No any literature about it as my information.

Thanks



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail. com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


To: Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com
From: northern_swift@ yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:19:32 -0800
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 
Dear Yousef,

very welcome to the group! I am happy that someone from the southern range of A.apus is in. This part of the range is very much underrepresented so to say.
What is the situation of Apus apus in Syria? Is there Arabic literature abt this bird? Do you know breeding places?

Kind regards

Ulrich
Berlin

--- On Fri, 11/13/09, Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL. COM> wrote:

From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL. COM>
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA
To: swallows-martins- swifts-worldwide @yahoogroups. com
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 11:41 PM

 


Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail. com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 
>> Hello,
>
> Welcome to the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group at Yahoo! Groups, a
> free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
> take a moment to review this message.
>
> To learn more about the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group, please visit
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Swallows- Martins-Swifts- Worldwide
>
> To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
> send email to
> Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com
> ************ ****
> CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!!!
> To prevent spammers, the first mail(s) of new members will be temporarily moderated (not automatically sent to the group, but read by me first). So do not be surprised that your first mail(s) do not appear. I will change this feature as soon as possible, provided you are not a spammer of course.
> ************ ****
>
> If you do not wish to belong to Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide , you may
> unsubscribe by sending an email to
> Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide -unsubscribe@ yahoogroups. com
>
> If you are leaving for a while and fear for a full box afterwards, you don't need to unsubscribe, just choose the "no mail" option in "edit my membership" on our homepage (upper right hyperlink).
>
> To see and modify all of your groups, go to
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ mygroups
>
>
> Regards, Louis-Philippe Arnhem,
>
> Moderator, Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs. yahoo.com/ info/terms/
>
>
>
>


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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7292 From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...>
Date: Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:07 am
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA 		DQRZ@...
Send Email Send Email
 

Dear Ulrich

Thanks for reply

Apus breeding in southern region of Syria, Yarmouk valley.

No any literature about it as my information.

Thanks



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@...
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
From: northern_swift@...
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:19:32 -0800
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 
Dear Yousef,

very welcome to the group! I am happy that someone from the southern range of A.apus is in. This part of the range is very much underrepresented so to say.
What is the situation of Apus apus in Syria? Is there Arabic literature abt this bird? Do you know breeding places?

Kind regards

Ulrich
Berlin

--- On Fri, 11/13/09, Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA
To: swallows-martins-swifts-worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 11:41 PM

 


Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail. com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 
>> Hello,
>
> Welcome to the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group at Yahoo! Groups, a
> free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
> take a moment to review this message.
>
> To learn more about the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group, please visit
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Swallows- Martins-Swifts- Worldwide
>
> To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
> send email to
> Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com
> ************ ****
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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7291 From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...>
Date: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:54 pm
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA 		DQRZ@...
Send Email Send Email
 

Dear Louis- Philippe Arnhem &all

Thank you very much for you kindest reply .Also I, am  happy.

Yes I ll do.

Please open attachments and enjoy.

Regards



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@...
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
From: louis.philippe.arnhem@...
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:15:31 +0100
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 
Dear Yousef,
 
Welcome to this forum.
I am very pleased to have somebody from your country, I am indeed pretty sure that we didn't have a Syrian correspondent yet !
Please keep us informed about the situation in Syria, more precisely about Swallows, Martins and Swifts.
 
Yours,
 

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 8:11 PM
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 

Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail.com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 
 
.



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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7290 From: Common Swift <northern_swift@...>
Date: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:19 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA 		northern_swift
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Dear Yousef,

very welcome to the group! I am happy that someone from the southern range of A.apus is in. This part of the range is very much underrepresented so to say.
What is the situation of Apus apus in Syria? Is there Arabic literature abt this bird? Do you know breeding places?

Kind regards

Ulrich
Berlin

--- On Fri, 11/13/09, Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...> wrote:

From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...>
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA
To: swallows-martins-swifts-worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 11:41 PM

 

Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail. com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


>> Hello,
>
> Welcome to the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group at Yahoo! Groups, a
> free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
> take a moment to review this message.
>
> To learn more about the Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide group, please visit
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Swallows- Martins-Swifts- Worldwide
>
> To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
> send email to
> Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide @yahoogroups. com
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> CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!!!
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> ************ ****
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> If you do not wish to belong to Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide , you may
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>
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>
> To see and modify all of your groups, go to
> http://groups. yahoo.com/ mygroups
>
>
> Regards, Louis-Philippe Arnhem,
>
> Moderator, Swallows-Martins- Swifts-Worldwide
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs. yahoo.com/ info/terms/
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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7289 From: "Louis-Philippe Arnhem" <louis.philippe.arnhem@...>
Date: Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:15 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA 		arnhem_louis...
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Send Email Send Email
 
Dear Yousef,
 
Welcome to this forum.
I am very pleased to have somebody from your country, I am indeed pretty sure that we didn't have a Syrian correspondent yet !
Please keep us informed about the situation in Syria, more precisely about Swallows, Martins and Swifts.
 
Yours,
 

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 8:11 PM
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] First Email from SYRIA

 

Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@hotmail.com
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


 

.


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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7288 From: Yousef Ali Alzaoby <DQRZ@...>
Date: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:11 pm
Subject: First Email from SYRIA 		DQRZ@...
Send Email Send Email
 

Dear all

Hello , my name is Yousef Alzaoby from Southern region of Syrian Arab republic.

I work to survey the birds in my area.

My area very fantastic because we have different  eco-systems  and very important for flyway.

We invite you to see the Swallow & Martin & Swift and his nest .

 

Yousef Alzaoby



 A project for Recording the birds in southern region of SYRIA (Dara'a & Sweida & Qunaitra ).
Tel: +963944798034
Tel&fax: +96315248387
E-mail: dqrz@...
 Syria – Dara'a – Mseefrh P.O.BOX \ 1 \
Yousef Ali Alzaoby-Freelance bird guide
Member of Global Owl Project  



 


>> Hello,
>
> Welcome to the Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide group at Yahoo! Groups, a
> free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
> take a moment to review this message.
>
> To learn more about the Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide group, please visit
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide
>
> To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
> send email to
> Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
> ****************
> CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!! CAUTION !!!!
> To prevent spammers, the first mail(s) of new members will be temporarily moderated (not automatically sent to the group, but read by me first). So do not be surprised that your first mail(s) do not appear. I will change this feature as soon as possible, provided you are not a spammer of course.
> ****************
>
> If you do not wish to belong to Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide, you may
> unsubscribe by sending an email to
> Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> If you are leaving for a while and fear for a full box afterwards, you don't need to unsubscribe, just choose the "no mail" option in "edit my membership" on our homepage (upper right hyperlink).
>
> To see and modify all of your groups, go to
> http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
>
>
> Regards, Louis-Philippe Arnhem,
>
> Moderator, Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>

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Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (10)
#7287 From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...>
Date: Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:25 am
Subject: Tracking Palearctic-breeding birds within Africa 		laniarius55
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http://birds.intanzania.com/tracking-the-movements-of-palearctic-breeding-birds-\
within-africa

Dear Lyndon, Dick, Jochem, Porfirio, Mark et al.

Many thanks for all the discussion which those first Common Swifts
have prompted so far.

I have posted some of the 'SMSW' thread on the birdman website via
posterous; that is to the best of my ability, and via our somewhat
dodgy TZ internet.

Yours ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (1)
#7286 From: Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...>
Date: Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:51 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Tracking Palearctic-breeding migrant birds 		lkearsley...
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Thanks for the heads up on that James. I don't know what the readership is of the blog but must say that it is a very nice layout.
My own text and comment in this thread was fairly conversational and therefore some points could be taken out of context. I've re-read it and won't loose much sleep but I do wonder if I'm entirely comfortable with off the cuff comments entering blog land. I see an awful lot of blog content being hungrily picked up by media and re-hashed as peered science. 

I would therefore respectfully propose an "ask first blog later" policy especially if posted verbatim.

Just my 10 cents

regards
Lyndon



On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 1:32 PM, James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...> wrote:
 

http://birds.intanzania.com/tracking-the-movements-of-palearctic-breeding-birds-within-africa

Dear Lyndon, Dick, Jochem, Porfirio, Mark et al.

Many thanks for all the discussion which those first Common Swifts have prompted so far.

I have posted some of the 'SMSW' thread on the birdman website via posterous; that is to the best of my ability, and via our somewhat dodgy TZ internet.

Yours ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek






Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7285 From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...>
Date: Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:32 pm
Subject: Tracking Palearctic-breeding migrant birds 		laniarius55
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http://birds.intanzania.com/tracking-the-movements-of-palearctic-breeding-birds-within-africa

Dear Lyndon, Dick, Jochem, Porfirio, Mark et al.

Many thanks for all the discussion which those first Common Swifts have prompted so far.

I have posted some of the 'SMSW' thread on the birdman website via posterous; that is to the best of my ability, and via our somewhat dodgy TZ internet.

Yours ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek





Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7284 From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...>
Date: Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:13 pm
Subject: Tracking Palearctic-breeding migrant birds 		laniarius55
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Send Email Send Email
  
http://birds.intanzania.com/tracking-the-movements-of-palearctic-breeding-birds-\
within-africa

Dear Lyndon, Dick, Jochem, Porfirio, Mark et al.

Many thanks for all the discussion which those first Common Swifts
have prompted so far.

I have posted some of the 'SMSW' thread on the birdman website via
posterous; that is to the best of my ability, and via our somewhat
dodgy TZ internet.

Yours ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7283 From: "Porfirio" <porfiriosolla@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:32 pm
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] Comments on the arrival of nominate Common Swift in East Africa 		p_solla
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Hi James,

 

"Understandably enough Europeans tend to think of migratory Palearctic-breeding birds, such as Willow Warblers, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Swifts and Barn Swallows, as their birds." 

 

As I recall from those (distant) times attending Zoology classes at the University (regretfully, for discussions like this one,  I finally became a molecular biologist and not an ornithologist !) the issue of where do migratory birds "belong" was one of those favorite topics which we debated "ad nauseam". I guess now  that there is no response and probably even such question has little sense.

 

At that time I used to support my preferred option stating  that migratory Paleartic birds return  every year to breed here, being this the most important event of their life histories.  Maybe before the first migratory movements began, common swifts (or their ancestors) were resident birds here at Europe and were forced to move South (following their flying preys) in winter when the climate became cooler but returning in Spring as soon as their food reappeared.

 

Obviously,  this was an extremely simplistic approach by my side, but, amazingly to me,  the reverse process seems to be happening in this progressively warming Europe.

 

As you surely know, there are European bird species,  Passerines and non Passerines, which are, apparently,  becoming "resident" , or at least "partially resident". Here in Spain, for instance, a significant number of  traditionally migrant birds spend now the whole year here. This is specially notorious with some species as white storks. In other cases it seems this trend is just starting,  but anyway it´s not uncommon now to find small populations of other birds, as raptors, doing the same thing (in the last years I regularly watch wintering booted eagles even here in the cool, windy and rainy Galicia -NW Spain-). Other examples are hoopoes, common swallows, and, specifically,  pallid swifts which can be regularly found wintering in Southern Spain.

 

Maybe this means nothing,  but, anyway, it is always fine to revisit those missed debates !.

 

Best regards,

 

Porfirio Solla

 

Vigo - Galicia (NW Spain)

 

 

 

De: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com] En nombre de James Wolstencroft
Enviado el: jueves, 12 de noviembre de 2009 14:33
Para: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Asunto: [SMS-Worldwide] Comments on the arrival of nominate Common Swift in East Africa

 

 

Common Swifts (Apus apus apus) vacate their breeding sites in north and western Europe any time between (depending upon which population you are considering) the beginning of August and the end of September. However they, like many smaller insectivorous birds which breed in the Palearctic, do not appear in large numbers in equatorial East Africa until the rain-bearing ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) delivers the "Short Rains" in November-December. 

 

 

The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is a huge disjunct mass of mighty clouds, of life-giving rain storms, that moves poleward, and back again with "the summer", tracking the apparent austral or boreal trajectory of the sun, across the tropics of either the southern or northern hemisphere. Associated with this is a tremendous movement of life, primarily of insects and birds.

 

 

The short rains of November-December usually dispense sufficient water to rapidly replenish soil moisture right across East Africa enabling many of the region's plant communities to spring-out of an enforced dormancy. A dormancy that has gripped much of the land for up to five months. This dormancy is brought about by the long cool-and-dry season of eastern Africa; it is therefore our relatively insect-less "winter". It coincides with the ITCZ having tracked the apparent movement of the sun 'up' into the northern hemisphere between April and August; and of course it coincides with the insect-rich summer of the northern lands.

 

 

Rain, and only rain; rain cascading in torrential deafening downpours (as just now on a Thursday afternoon in Arusha), lashes the desiccated thicket and wilted scrub; it instantly brings forth savanna leaves and grasses, whose unfurling in turn explodes the pupal casings of an airborne invertebrate horde, the horde upon which all 'our' swallows, swifts and martins - no matter where they hatched - must feed. Right now as the rain abates our garden is absolutely full of flying termites, hundreds of thousands, brought out by this storm. A yellow-throated trochilus Will ow Warbler and a Spotted Flycatcher have fallen from the leaden sky into this private Heligoland, appearing in the bushes outside my window as if from nowhere. No rain hereabouts means no termites, and no termites means no swifts!

 

 

Understandably enough Europeans tend to think of migratory Palearctic-breeding birds, such as Willow Warblers, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Swifts and Barn Swallows, as their birds. 

 

However wider consideration of the Afro-Palearctic migration phenomenon, particularly when viewed from within Africa itself, should clearly reveal a very different picture. One wherein this fantastic migration, of insects as well as birds, proves to be largely an extension of the great inter-tropical African rains migrations. An awe-inspiring movement pulsing outward, tending either southwards (as now) or northwards (March-June), from the equator. 

 

 

Countl ess forms of life surging behind the advancing ITCZ twice-yearly outward from the Congo basin - Africa's evergreen heart. These inter-African movements are undertaken by incalculable numbers of African birds of a great many species. The centrality of this biannual pulsation becomes especially compelling when one considers the amplitude of the great Afro-Palearctic migrations during those periods of maximum glaciation. Then of course most of the bird movement between the present day European peninsula and Africa remained almost entirely within Africa!

 

 

It is within this intra-african seasonal flow, back and forth, that we should look for most of the antecedents of the great "north-south" or "south-north" or better "inbound-outbound" migrational flights. Flights which have so impressed Europeans even before they themselves first 'arrived' out there, and became in essence what they did, amassing capital unleashing carbon dioxide, from those temperate zones, near to the poles.

 

Yours as ever,

James 

 

+255 (0) 765-676-514

 

 

Twitter: @gonolek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7282 From: Hazel Wheeler <hwheeler@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:34 pm
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] Chimney Swifs in London Onario 		hazel.wheele...
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Hi Jochem,
 
Thanks for the warm welcome!
 
Chimney Swifts generally gather in the fall to roost in larger chimneys, often on churches, schools, and old industrial buildings, but for a nesting pair they can use much smaller chimneys, and they are often found in old houses.  Of course a video of 2 swifts entering a small chimney once or twice through the day isn't nearly as exciting as the big roosts; it's no surprise they don't make it on to YouTube.  To give you an example though, this past season I observed a successful nesting pair in a chimney with an opening of approximately 20cm x 55cm; this was a nest that fledged four young.
 
Cheers,
Hazel 
 
Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Jochem Kuhnen
Sent: 28 October 2009 16:01
To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Chimney Swifs in London Onario

 

Hi Hazel,
 
First of all, welcome to the group! I hope you'll find some things of interest here.
 
Out of curiosity, when you write that Chimney Swifts are all around in certain villages, does this mean these are birds that probably nest in normal houses' chimneys? I've only ever seen some videos on YouTube of those large roosting places and photographs of similar large sized places. It's an intriguing idea, these Swifts that are different than the ones flying around here in the Netherlands still have some similarities in behaviour, though not always very obvious (I see a similarity in the 'strange' nestplaces both species use for example).
 
Greetings, Jochem Kuhnen, Beek Ubbergen, the Netherlands.

Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 8:10 PM
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] Chimney Swifs in London Onario

 

Hello Edward,
 
First of all, timing:  Chimney Swifts start showing up in London, ON in mid-May, and are generally present in the city until the beginning of October, so there's a large window in which to see them. 
 
As far as locations, there are nests sites all through the city, and usually a couple spring/summer roosts that can have significant numbers through the breeding season.  If you even spend any time walking around the Wortley Village/Old South area in the summer, I guarantee you'll see them; they seem to be everywhere in the village.  If you visit in August or September, there are usually at least 10 sizeable fall roosts where significant numbers can be seen on a given night, though there's year-to-year variation on which chimneys end up with the big roosts.  This year, the big ones were South Secondary School (371 Tecumseh Ave E) and the building at 388 Dundas St, which both had peak nights of approximately 500 birds at the end of August.
 
If you wanted some specific addresses for nest sites, you can tell me the area in which you have family and I can dig up the most reliable swift chimneys in the area. 
 
Hope this helps,
 
Hazel
 
       
-----Original Message-----
From: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Edward Mayer
Sent: 24 October 2009 05:22
To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com; mayer_edward@hotmail.com
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] Chimney Swifs in London Onario

 

Hello Hazel, Welcome to the Group! I
 was wondering if you could advise me? I have family in London Ontario, and even though I here that here are good populations still of Chimney swifts here, I have yet to see one on any visit. Do you know where the best sites would be, and what dates would be best? Thanks for any help you can give with his request,
Yours,
Edward
Swift Conservation www.swift-conservation.org



Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (4)
#7281 From: Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:38 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania - geolocators 		lkearsley...
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Indeed Dick, conventional ringing (unless one considers telescope reading of large rings) rarely gives more detail of individual movements than a starting point and a point of control or demise. Long distance migrants from European ringing schemes are mostly recovered from within Europe and one cannot expect more than chance recoveries from further afield. As soon as the time between the two points steps outside a single leg then the significance reduces further. Colour ringing improves this greatly but only when there are both observers and ring reading opportunities. Not a consideration with swifts.

Swifts spend 9 to 10 months in their African homelands and as in James' excellent description, are only driven north when the weather and food supply dries up otherwise they would breed in Africa. Decline in swift numbers in Europe may have allot to do with modern building practices but the area affected is actually small when compared to the breeding distribution. It is patently obvious that Africa is the key and the worry. I encourage everyone to follow James in stepping outside our European boundaries and looking at the problem from an African perspective. 

As for the technology, when you consider the time effort and risk put into ringing three quarters of a million birds each year in the UK alone (700.000 in Belgium, 35000 in my own ringing group) compared to the information provided by one seasons data set from one tagged Hobby then I think that the risk compared to payback is minimal. The fact that in the UK any application to use it would probably have to run the gauntlet of the Unconventional Marks Panel says more about our conservative thinking (and conventions) than anything else.

Cheers

Lyndon


On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 3:05 PM, Dick Newell <dick.newell@...> wrote:
 

Thanks Lyndon,
Yes this is brilliant technology, and it will soon tell us a huge amount about the movements of Swifts and other birds in Africa. The results from Seabirds are incredible, you would never get this kind of information from ringing the birds. To what extent the decline in Swifts is influenced by things happening in Africa is not known - but it would surely be useful to know what their annual grand tour is.
Regards
Dick
Cambridge, UK



On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 1:14 PM, Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...> wrote:
 

Hi Dick et al,



The initial purple martin research and quickly published paper (Feb 2009) was perhaps premature, but I still think that it was important to get the news out. The media attention was however somewhat over the top.

Bridget Stutchbery's (at a Canadian university btw) brainwave was that technologies developed in Cambridge UK initially to cheaply but roughly track the first few years of wandering albatrosses movements between fledging and return to terra firma several years later to join the breeding colonies, and later improved and deployed on smaller albatrosses and petrels, could be adapted to track song birds on long distance migration (albeit with the  limited accuracy geolocators can provide). 

Previous deployment of the loggers had been as attachments to rings. The adaptation for a backpack with a light detecting diode on a stalk was the touch of brilliance and out of the box thinking required.

The 20 purple martins so tagged (2007) were with 1.5gm ring tags where a 1.5cm stalk had been added at an angle of 15° so that they would stick out above the plumage. The harness material was medical grade teflon to be sure that no infections could occur during the year of deployment. To have any loggers recovered at all was a very major achievement and a watershed moment in small bird migration research. Purple martins, although much loved, are not especially endangered yet, so I think that the probable demise of 18 of the study subjects was part of an acceptable risk level particularly in hindsight.

This was the motor that has driven the unbelievably quick improvements to the loggers and the harness materials chosen. It was a very necessary step. In the meantime two more seasons of purple martin tagging has gone on with improved equipment and insights.

Aerodynamically, the tags have reduced in thickness (an important consideration in swifts) from 8mm to 4mm. The weight has come down in stages to a current 0.7 and 0.5 gm  and stalk lengths have been shortened to reduce drag.

For many trans-Saharan songbird species, special habitat requirements in both wintering quarters and summer breeding grounds make them susceptible to both human habitat pressures and global climate shifts. The ability to locate the wintering grounds and step in to preserve habitats is an burningly urgent question for such as aquatic warblers. 

It also helps if you think of them as African birds that head northwards to breed.

I do not think that there is the same urgency for swifts but it would be complacent to ignore that fact that current climate changes are very volatile and that the effect of apparently minor changes probably far reaching. One thing is quite sure, besides clarification of such aspects as nest site fidelity and perhaps longevity, conventional ringing is not going to give any insight into the winter (well 9 month) wanderings of swifts or their ability to react to weather patterns and resulting food availability. 

For that these loggers present the only opportunity in the foreseeable future unless funds and the drive is found to make the changes suggested by the Icarus Initiative (see: http://www.icarusinitiative.org/ ). Argos satellite transmitters have recently broken past the long held minimum weight of 9 grams to just under 5 grams but further reduction is not so likely. The result can be seen on the following poster on Hobby (Falco subbuteo - coincidentally a swift predator) tracking using the 5gm solar powered units: http://www.raptor-research.de/pdfs/a_sp100p/a_sp140.pdf

I naively looked into the possibility of deploying loggers on swifts this season (2009) but was quickly though gently advised that there were allot of considerations to be taken into account. I been working on the most important of those this summer. I still hope that a pilot project will go ahead in 2010. 

More on that at a later date.


regards

Lyndon

(Belgium)







On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 7:27 AM, Dick Newell <dick.newell@...> wrote:
 

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Porfirio <porfiriosolla@...> wrote:

I really wish that some people is already using geolocators or similar technology to clarify definitively all these questions.


The Americans have successfuly tracked Purple Martins to Brazil and back, using loggers, but they only got 2 of the 20 or so birds they fitted back, compared to 54% of colour ringed birds in a control group, implying a high mortality. Such mortality would not be acceptable here in the UK with Swifts, so the technology needs to evolve further before one could consider such a project. But, no doubt the day will come. A slide presentation here proposes a project to track Aquatic Warblers this way - the loggers are down to 0.5 grams. It seems that disruption to the air flow past birds like Purple Martins and Swifts makes it much more dangerous for these birds.
Dick






Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7280 From: Dick Newell <dick.newell@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:05 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania - geolocators 		dick.newell@...
Send Email Send Email
 
Thanks Lyndon,
Yes this is brilliant technology, and it will soon tell us a huge amount about the movements of Swifts and other birds in Africa. The results from Seabirds are incredible, you would never get this kind of information from ringing the birds. To what extent the decline in Swifts is influenced by things happening in Africa is not known - but it would surely be useful to know what their annual grand tour is.
Regards
Dick
Cambridge, UK

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 1:14 PM, Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...> wrote:
 

Hi Dick et al,



The initial purple martin research and quickly published paper (Feb 2009) was perhaps premature, but I still think that it was important to get the news out. The media attention was however somewhat over the top.

Bridget Stutchbery's (at a Canadian university btw) brainwave was that technologies developed in Cambridge UK initially to cheaply but roughly track the first few years of wandering albatrosses movements between fledging and return to terra firma several years later to join the breeding colonies, and later improved and deployed on smaller albatrosses and petrels, could be adapted to track song birds on long distance migration (albeit with the  limited accuracy geolocators can provide). 

Previous deployment of the loggers had been as attachments to rings. The adaptation for a backpack with a light detecting diode on a stalk was the touch of brilliance and out of the box thinking required.

The 20 purple martins so tagged (2007) were with 1.5gm ring tags where a 1.5cm stalk had been added at an angle of 15° so that they would stick out above the plumage. The harness material was medical grade teflon to be sure that no infections could occur during the year of deployment. To have any loggers recovered at all was a very major achievement and a watershed moment in small bird migration research. Purple martins, although much loved, are not especially endangered yet, so I think that the probable demise of 18 of the study subjects was part of an acceptable risk level particularly in hindsight.

This was the motor that has driven the unbelievably quick improvements to the loggers and the harness materials chosen. It was a very necessary step. In the meantime two more seasons of purple martin tagging has gone on with improved equipment and insights.

Aerodynamically, the tags have reduced in thickness (an important consideration in swifts) from 8mm to 4mm. The weight has come down in stages to a current 0.7 and 0.5 gm  and stalk lengths have been shortened to reduce drag.

For many trans-Saharan songbird species, special habitat requirements in both wintering quarters and summer breeding grounds make them susceptible to both human habitat pressures and global climate shifts. The ability to locate the wintering grounds and step in to preserve habitats is an burningly urgent question for such as aquatic warblers. 

It also helps if you think of them as African birds that head northwards to breed.

I do not think that there is the same urgency for swifts but it would be complacent to ignore that fact that current climate changes are very volatile and that the effect of apparently minor changes probably far reaching. One thing is quite sure, besides clarification of such aspects as nest site fidelity and perhaps longevity, conventional ringing is not going to give any insight into the winter (well 9 month) wanderings of swifts or their ability to react to weather patterns and resulting food availability. 

For that these loggers present the only opportunity in the foreseeable future unless funds and the drive is found to make the changes suggested by the Icarus Initiative (see: http://www.icarusinitiative.org/ ). Argos satellite transmitters have recently broken past the long held minimum weight of 9 grams to just under 5 grams but further reduction is not so likely. The result can be seen on the following poster on Hobby (Falco subbuteo - coincidentally a swift predator) tracking using the 5gm solar powered units: http://www.raptor-research.de/pdfs/a_sp100p/a_sp140.pdf

I naively looked into the possibility of deploying loggers on swifts this season (2009) but was quickly though gently advised that there were allot of considerations to be taken into account. I been working on the most important of those this summer. I still hope that a pilot project will go ahead in 2010. 

More on that at a later date.


regards

Lyndon

(Belgium)







On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 7:27 AM, Dick Newell <dick.newell@...> wrote:
 

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Porfirio <porfiriosolla@...> wrote:

I really wish that some people is already using geolocators or similar technology to clarify definitively all these questions.


The Americans have successfuly tracked Purple Martins to Brazil and back, using loggers, but they only got 2 of the 20 or so birds they fitted back, compared to 54% of colour ringed birds in a control group, implying a high mortality. Such mortality would not be acceptable here in the UK with Swifts, so the technology needs to evolve further before one could consider such a project. But, no doubt the day will come. A slide presentation here proposes a project to track Aquatic Warblers this way - the loggers are down to 0.5 grams. It seems that disruption to the air flow past birds like Purple Martins and Swifts makes it much more dangerous for these birds.
Dick





Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7279 From: Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:58 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Comments on the arrival of nominate Common Swift in East Africa 		lkearsley...
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Greetings James..

Very well put. Interesting that (from the European point of view Afro-Palearctic migration systems are more usually referred to as Palearctic-African which perhaps sums up our northern conception of things in general. Even Moreau phrased the title of his magnificent book in that way  (R. E. Moreau. 1972 - The Palaearctic-African bird migration systems)

A global view of the ITCZ cloud system can be seen at: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jrcarter/Geo211/WebPage-211/compos32099.gif

What I have been searching for are weather charts and particularly archives of African weather systems. Can you help me with that?

Best regards

Lyndon

Lyndon Kearsley
Belgium



On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 2:32 PM, James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...> wrote:
 

Common Swifts (Apus apus apus) vacate their breeding sites in north and western Europe any time between (depending upon which population you are considering) the beginning of August and the end of September. However they, like many smaller insectivorous birds which breed in the Palearctic, do not appear in large numbers in equatorial East Africa until the rain-bearing ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) delivers the "Short Rains" in November-December. 

 
The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is a huge disjunct mass of mighty clouds, of life-giving rain storms, that moves poleward, and back again with "the summer", tracking the apparent austral or boreal trajectory of the sun, across the tropics of either the southern or northern hemisphere. Associated with this is a tremendous movement of life, primarily of insects and birds.

 
The short rains of November-December usually dispense sufficient water to rapidly replenish soil moisture right across East Africa enabling many of the region's plant communities to spring-out of an enforced dormancy. A dormancy that has gripped much of the land for up to five months. This dormancy is brought about by the long cool-and-dry season of eastern Africa; it is therefore our relatively insect-less "winter". It coincides with the ITCZ having tracked the apparent movement of the sun 'up' into the northern hemisphere between April and August; and of course it coincides with the insect-rich summer of the northern lands.

 
Rain, and only rain; rain cascading in torrential deafening downpours (as just now on a Thursday afternoon in Arusha), lashes the desiccated thicket and wilted scrub; it instantly brings forth savanna leaves and grasses, whose unfurling in turn explodes the pupal casings of an airborne invertebrate horde, the horde upon which all 'our' swallows, swifts and martins - no matter where they hatched - must feed. Right now as the rain abates our garden is absolutely full of flying termites, hundreds of thousands, brought out by this storm. A yellow-throated trochilus Willow Warbler and a Spotted Flycatcher have fallen from the leaden sky into this private Heligoland, appearing in the bushes outside my window as if from nowhere. No rain hereabouts means no termites, and no termites means no swifts!

 
Understandably enough Europeans tend to think of migratory Palearctic-breeding birds, such as Willow Warblers, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Swifts and Barn Swallows, as their birds. 
 
However wider consideration of the Afro-Palearctic migration phenomenon, particularly when viewed from within Africa itself, should clearly reveal a very different picture. One wherein this fantastic migration, of insects as well as birds, proves to be largely an extension of the great inter-tropical African rains migrations. An awe-inspiring movement pulsing outward, tending either southwards (as now) or northwards (March-June), from the equator. 

 
Countless forms of life surging behind the advancing ITCZ twice-yearly outward from the Congo basin - Africa's evergreen heart. These inter-African movements are undertaken by incalculable numbers of African birds of a great many species. The centrality of this biannual pulsation becomes especially compelling when one considers the amplitude of the great Afro-Palearctic migrations during those periods of maximum glaciation. Then of course most of the bird movement between the present day European peninsula and Africa remained almost entirely within Africa!

 
It is within this intra-african seasonal flow, back and forth, that we should look for most of the antecedents of the great "north-south" or "south-north" or better "inbound-outbound" migrational flights. Flights which have so impressed Europeans even before they themselves first 'arrived' out there, and became in essence what they did, amassing capital unleashing carbon dioxide, from those temperate zones, near to the poles.

Yours as ever,
James 

+255 (0) 765-676-514


Twitter: @gonolek











Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7278 From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:32 pm
Subject: Comments on the arrival of nominate Common Swift in East Africa 		laniarius55
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Common Swifts (Apus apus apus) vacate their breeding sites in north and western Europe any time between (depending upon which population you are considering) the beginning of August and the end of September. However they, like many smaller insectivorous birds which breed in the Palearctic, do not appear in large numbers in equatorial East Africa until the rain-bearing ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) delivers the "Short Rains" in November-December. 

 
The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is a huge disjunct mass of mighty clouds, of life-giving rain storms, that moves poleward, and back again with "the summer", tracking the apparent austral or boreal trajectory of the sun, across the tropics of either the southern or northern hemisphere. Associated with this is a tremendous movement of life, primarily of insects and birds.

 
The short rains of November-December usually dispense sufficient water to rapidly replenish soil moisture right across East Africa enabling many of the region's plant communities to spring-out of an enforced dormancy. A dormancy that has gripped much of the land for up to five months. This dormancy is brought about by the long cool-and-dry season of eastern Africa; it is therefore our relatively insect-less "winter". It coincides with the ITCZ having tracked the apparent movement of the sun 'up' into the northern hemisphere between April and August; and of course it coincides with the insect-rich summer of the northern lands.

 
Rain, and only rain; rain cascading in torrential deafening downpours (as just now on a Thursday afternoon in Arusha), lashes the desiccated thicket and wilted scrub; it instantly brings forth savanna leaves and grasses, whose unfurling in turn explodes the pupal casings of an airborne invertebrate horde, the horde upon which all 'our' swallows, swifts and martins - no matter where they hatched - must feed. Right now as the rain abates our garden is absolutely full of flying termites, hundreds of thousands, brought out by this storm. A yellow-throated trochilus Willow Warbler and a Spotted Flycatcher have fallen from the leaden sky into this private Heligoland, appearing in the bushes outside my window as if from nowhere. No rain hereabouts means no termites, and no termites means no swifts!

 
Understandably enough Europeans tend to think of migratory Palearctic-breeding birds, such as Willow Warblers, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Swifts and Barn Swallows, as their birds. 
 
However wider consideration of the Afro-Palearctic migration phenomenon, particularly when viewed from within Africa itself, should clearly reveal a very different picture. One wherein this fantastic migration, of insects as well as birds, proves to be largely an extension of the great inter-tropical African rains migrations. An awe-inspiring movement pulsing outward, tending either southwards (as now) or northwards (March-June), from the equator. 

 
Countless forms of life surging behind the advancing ITCZ twice-yearly outward from the Congo basin - Africa's evergreen heart. These inter-African movements are undertaken by incalculable numbers of African birds of a great many species. The centrality of this biannual pulsation becomes especially compelling when one considers the amplitude of the great Afro-Palearctic migrations during those periods of maximum glaciation. Then of course most of the bird movement between the present day European peninsula and Africa remained almost entirely within Africa!

 
It is within this intra-african seasonal flow, back and forth, that we should look for most of the antecedents of the great "north-south" or "south-north" or better "inbound-outbound" migrational flights. Flights which have so impressed Europeans even before they themselves first 'arrived' out there, and became in essence what they did, amassing capital unleashing carbon dioxide, from those temperate zones, near to the poles.

Yours as ever,
James 

+255 (0) 765-676-514


Twitter: @gonolek










Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7277 From: Lyndon Kearsley <lkearsley@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:14 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania - geolocators 		lkearsley...
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Hi Dick et al,


The initial purple martin research and quickly published paper (Feb 2009) was perhaps premature, but I still think that it was important to get the news out. The media attention was however somewhat over the top.

Bridget Stutchbery's (at a Canadian university btw) brainwave was that technologies developed in Cambridge UK initially to cheaply but roughly track the first few years of wandering albatrosses movements between fledging and return to terra firma several years later to join the breeding colonies, and later improved and deployed on smaller albatrosses and petrels, could be adapted to track song birds on long distance migration (albeit with the  limited accuracy geolocators can provide). 

Previous deployment of the loggers had been as attachments to rings. The adaptation for a backpack with a light detecting diode on a stalk was the touch of brilliance and out of the box thinking required.

The 20 purple martins so tagged (2007) were with 1.5gm ring tags where a 1.5cm stalk had been added at an angle of 15° so that they would stick out above the plumage. The harness material was medical grade teflon to be sure that no infections could occur during the year of deployment. To have any loggers recovered at all was a very major achievement and a watershed moment in small bird migration research. Purple martins, although much loved, are not especially endangered yet, so I think that the probable demise of 18 of the study subjects was part of an acceptable risk level particularly in hindsight.

This was the motor that has driven the unbelievably quick improvements to the loggers and the harness materials chosen. It was a very necessary step. In the meantime two more seasons of purple martin tagging has gone on with improved equipment and insights.

Aerodynamically, the tags have reduced in thickness (an important consideration in swifts) from 8mm to 4mm. The weight has come down in stages to a current 0.7 and 0.5 gm  and stalk lengths have been shortened to reduce drag.

For many trans-Saharan songbird species, special habitat requirements in both wintering quarters and summer breeding grounds make them susceptible to both human habitat pressures and global climate shifts. The ability to locate the wintering grounds and step in to preserve habitats is an burningly urgent question for such as aquatic warblers. 

It also helps if you think of them as African birds that head northwards to breed.

I do not think that there is the same urgency for swifts but it would be complacent to ignore that fact that current climate changes are very volatile and that the effect of apparently minor changes probably far reaching. One thing is quite sure, besides clarification of such aspects as nest site fidelity and perhaps longevity, conventional ringing is not going to give any insight into the winter (well 9 month) wanderings of swifts or their ability to react to weather patterns and resulting food availability. 

For that these loggers present the only opportunity in the foreseeable future unless funds and the drive is found to make the changes suggested by the Icarus Initiative (see: http://www.icarusinitiative.org/ ). Argos satellite transmitters have recently broken past the long held minimum weight of 9 grams to just under 5 grams but further reduction is not so likely. The result can be seen on the following poster on Hobby (Falco subbuteo - coincidentally a swift predator) tracking using the 5gm solar powered units: http://www.raptor-research.de/pdfs/a_sp100p/a_sp140.pdf

I naively looked into the possibility of deploying loggers on swifts this season (2009) but was quickly though gently advised that there were allot of considerations to be taken into account. I been working on the most important of those this summer. I still hope that a pilot project will go ahead in 2010. 

More on that at a later date.


regards

Lyndon

(Belgium)







On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 7:27 AM, Dick Newell <dick.newell@...> wrote:
 

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Porfirio <porfiriosolla@...> wrote:

I really wish that some people is already using geolocators or similar technology to clarify definitively all these questions.


The Americans have successfuly tracked Purple Martins to Brazil and back, using loggers, but they only got 2 of the 20 or so birds they fitted back, compared to 54% of colour ringed birds in a control group, implying a high mortality. Such mortality would not be acceptable here in the UK with Swifts, so the technology needs to evolve further before one could consider such a project. But, no doubt the day will come. A slide presentation here proposes a project to track Aquatic Warblers this way - the loggers are down to 0.5 grams. It seems that disruption to the air flow past birds like Purple Martins and Swifts makes it much more dangerous for these birds.
Dick




Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (3)
#7276 From: Rosa Jiménez <princesa1970@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:43 am
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania 		princesa1970
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that and the fact that some sections of the United States actually have huge Purple Martin colonies so unfortunately, the banding of these birds in states like California is really hard to track with much success...though this year's breeding season saw the return of a bird that was banded as a nestling last year, needless to say, that was extremely exciting for us here in Sacramento, CA. I do agree with you Dick, tracking systems need to be improved, the problem we're facing is the lack of strongly dedicated following and unfortunately the reliance on government funding makes it even more difficult since that is also becoming a problem in this area
 
 
Rosa J

From: Dick Newell <dick.newell@...>
To: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, November 11, 2009 10:27:18 PM
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania

 

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Porfirio <porfiriosolla@ telefonica. net> wrote:

I really wish that some people is already using geolocators or similar technology to clarify definitively all these questions.


The Americans have successfuly tracked Purple Martins to Brazil and back, using loggers, but they only got 2 of the 20 or so birds they fitted back, compared to 54% of colour ringed birds in a control group, implying a high mortality. Such mortality would not be acceptable here in the UK with Swifts, so the technology needs to evolve further before one could consider such a project. But, no doubt the day will come. A slide presentation here proposes a project to track Aquatic Warblers this way - the loggers are down to 0.5 grams. It seems that disruption to the air flow past birds like Purple Martins and Swifts makes it much more dangerous for these birds.
Dick




Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (9)
#7275 From: Dick Newell <dick.newell@...>
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:27 am
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania 		dick.newell@...
Send Email Send Email
 
On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Porfirio <porfiriosolla@...> wrote:

I really wish that some people is already using geolocators or similar technology to clarify definitively all these questions.


The Americans have successfuly tracked Purple Martins to Brazil and back, using loggers, but they only got 2 of the 20 or so birds they fitted back, compared to 54% of colour ringed birds in a control group, implying a high mortality. Such mortality would not be acceptable here in the UK with Swifts, so the technology needs to evolve further before one could consider such a project. But, no doubt the day will come. A slide presentation here proposes a project to track Aquatic Warblers this way - the loggers are down to 0.5 grams. It seems that disruption to the air flow past birds like Purple Martins and Swifts makes it much more dangerous for these birds.
Dick



Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (9)
#7274 From: "Porfirio" <porfiriosolla@...>
Date: Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:08 pm
Subject: RE: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania 		p_solla
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Hi everyone,

 

I remember to have read somewhere that the Western Europe populations of common swifts,  once reach Central Africa,  stay some weeks in the area of the Guinea Gulf and then move, at this time of the year, to the East to spend the rest of the winter at Eastern Africa, but maybe I am wrong.

 

I really wish that some people is already using geolocators or similar technology to clarify definitively all these questions.

 

Regards,

 

Porfirio Solla

 

Vigo - Galicia (NW Spain)

 

De: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com] En nombre de Jochem Kuhnen
Enviado el: miércoles, 11 de noviembre de 2009 20:53
Para: Swallows-Martins-Swifts-Worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Asunto: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania

 

 

Hi James,

 

Interesting to hear. Like Mark, I too would have thought they had already reached their wintergrounds.

 

Greetings, Jochem Kuhnen, the Netherlands

www.xjochemx.nl

 

Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:28 PM

Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania

 

 


Hi there,

As the great drought collapses under an all out El Nino overcast and
most glorious rain - as of today November 11 I can sit and write again.

"November 3 - The first significant incursion of nominate Common
Swifts into northernmost Tanzania"

http://birds.intanzania.com/crowned-cranes-common-swifts-and-palearctic-passerines-by-the-mara-river

Yours as ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek


Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (9)
#7273 From: "Jochem Kuhnen" <this_isnt_the_tenka_ichi_budokai@...>
Date: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:53 pm
Subject: Re: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania 		xjochemx
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
 
Hi James,
 
Interesting to hear. Like Mark, I too would have thought they had already reached their wintergrounds.
 
Greetings, Jochem Kuhnen, the Netherlands
www.xjochemx.nl

Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:28 PM
Subject: [SMS-Worldwide] Common Swifts entering northern Tanzania

 


Hi there,

As the great drought collapses under an all out El Nino overcast and
most glorious rain - as of today November 11 I can sit and write again.

"November 3 - The first significant incursion of nominate Common
Swifts into northernmost Tanzania"

http://birds.intanzania.com/crowned-cranes-common-swifts-and-palearctic-passerines-by-the-mara-river

Yours as ever,
James

+255 (0) 765-676-514

Web: http://birds.intanzania.com

Twitter: @gonolek


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