That's A Funny Swift......

I think I'm seeing things.

Work is bad for your health, reading books gives you ideas, looking at BWPi gives you worse ones. I'm rambling.

Ok, two incidents to report. Entertaining anecdotes to lighten your day. 'Oh, that Backward Birder, what a hoot he is' and so on...

Yesterday I'm walking to my car after work, when over flies a Swift. Quite low, maybe 30 or 40 feet. "Ooh, a Work Tick!" is hotly followed by "That's a pale Swift..." Eyes only at a bird against blue sky is not optimal, but its got a shorter tail and blunter wings than I'd expect, pale secondaries and inner primaries too, but it's just the light playing tricks. Right? The whole chunky impression is just that, an impression. Then another Swift joins it, they fly side by side, and the new one is darker, pointier, but not smaller. "Oh shit" I need optics and get to my car very quickly. They've gone, not to return. Fuck.

[[Edit: Something that still bugs me about this pale swift was the paleness of the body - every Common Swift I've seen with it's wings 'lit up' by bright sky or sunshine has shown a very contrastingly dark underbody. Not this bird.]]

A pale Swift. No more can be said. A 'might have been'.

Today, this very evening, I look out the window and see the local Swifts are for once low over the Garden when the sun isn't overhead. I take my proper bins and head out to do some Swift-watching. Swifts rock, 30+ rock a lot, and the chance to get some practice in with the local Commons is always good. So when I see a Swift in primary moult... This is not damage [there was one with a nice bit of damage to P8 and P9 on the right wing, btw] this was both P8s shed and re-growing. Its tail feathers looked to have pale inner webs too and no, they weren't the long forked Common Swift tail feathers either. But. Oh yes, the but and a big one it is; it was dusk, the cloud to the west kept the sun off, and plumage features were pretty much impossible except on those birds which came in very close and low. Guess what our bird didn't do? So, no masks or scales or saddles to be seen - I only got on it well the once and it wasn't one of the nice rooftop ones over your head, alas. The call I heard among the Commons' periodic screaming was very exciting, but I can't be sure it was the moulting bird which gave it.

Aside from that little bit of drama, I learned once again that Swifts are a lot more varied than you'd expect - one had pale patches on its underwing coverts, for example. Others were very slim and dark, some had glaring throat patches, others seemed to have almost none, a couple had very long tail forks. Despite the frustration and the midgies, it was fun - stopped only when they moved off down the hill after a good 40 minutes of aerobatics.

Now I have a few questions for the people who read this blog and who know a whole lot more than I do;

Can Common Swifts moult in July? Suspended moult of P10 yes, found references to that and to replacing lost/damaged feathers, but actively moulting primaries in the middle of the breeding season? Also, thinking back to the pale swift - could there be juveniles on the wing this early?

Any answers, comments, thoughts etc. will be gratefully received.