Bird Meeting 1st July at Newport

Fourteen members of IWNHAS and the Facebook social media group Wight Swifts met for an evening Swift walk, coinciding with the start of National Swift Awareness Week, jointly led by Caroline Dudley and Jim Baldwin. Starting at Quay Street, Newport, the group observed a long established pair of nest boxes on a house which is still thought to be occupied by one pair of Swifts. We then walked up the High Street to watch an active nest in the eaves above the TUI travel agents shop. There was several visits to the nest with adults bringing food while our presence staring up at the nest site attracted a lot of attention from the passing general public, several of whom stayed to watch! We then concluded the walk at the County Records Office at Hillside where another active nest was seen. Unfortunately, the recent weather had forced the screaming parties of immature Swifts seen a few evenings earlier to temporarily depart to more settled climes. This was the first time a Swift walk had been arranged on the Isle of Wight and the positive response suggests this will become an annual event.