Lesson Learnt?
News of a Pallid Swift on RBA interrupted my coffee break
and had me heading to Hauxley. I decided
to park at the south end and couldn’t believe my luck as I saw the swift before
getting out of the car.
Strangely there were no other birders present. I rang RBA,
tweeted and texted. I desperately tried to get some photos and watch this
amazing November bird. After about 15 minutes the Swift disappeared and I looked
at the photos.
A few more birders arrived and I showed them the photos and commented
that it looked dark . I also checked RBA and noticed the second report was of a
Pallid/Common Swift.
Surely I should have twigged … dark does not mean Pallid.
There were some other factors; the harsh lighting, shadows and some atypical
plumage features (just my excuses). At home studying the photos I was in need of help. Thankfully
MPF, JF and JB came to the rescue and said it was a Common Swift. MPF also
suggested Common Swift form pekinensis.
I dug out Ian Lewington’s article Birding World Vol 12, Num
11 p.450. His paper made interesting reading.
So now I’m happy it is a Common Swift. If you scour the
notes in the Advanced Bird ID Guide (Nils Van Duivenduk) the photos can show some
features of Pallid but if you forget the fine detail and look at the overall
bird it is a Common Swift. My third November Swift (1 in 1970s at Tynemouth , 1 last year Amble and now this Hauxley bird.)
These last two photographs have been lightened on the computer.
Apologies to anyone inconvenienced by my posting on RBA and Twitter.
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