Saturday 23 June 2012

Little Swift, New Brighton

It's very rare that I twitch these days, but news of a Little Swift for its second day at New Brighton persuaded me to jump in the car and head for the Wirral. There have only been about 23 previous records of Little Swift in Britain, and most are not normally "twitchable" being seen by just a few observers for perhaps just a few minutes at extreme ends of the country.

This bird arrived yesterday during the torrential rain, and is presumably feeding up today before heading off, perhaps tomorrow. It has been quite far ranging during the day, and has been seen as far away as Bootle on the other side of the river, but it seems to spend most of its time in New Brighton.

It was a cracking bird, obviously smalller than Common Swift, it also has a square white rump, a square (not forked) tail, a pale throat and quite a fluttery, almost bat like flight. My little camera is nowhere near up to getting a decent flight photo of a Little Swift, especially on a dull day like today, but below are four photos which I think by and large capture all of the identification features noted above (if you squint!).


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