Is anyone still seeing Swifts (le Martinet Noir) in their area? Particularly GVA?

I’m in Champel, Genève. In previous years I watched them in Nyon thinking they were bats. In any case, this year I’ve been watching them in Genève and I’ve seen plenty of them every night and most mornings (when I’m up for it) Today, however, none.

I’m really surprised because everything I’ve seen online says that you can usually see them until the first week of August, give or take some days, and any Swifts seen in Mid August will be migrating south from further North. Typically, those that had chicks late in the season will be the ones leaving around the 1st of August. Naturally, Swifts do their own thing and care not for what I’ve read online. Still, I was hoping to see them longer.

I’ve also read that early departures are typically influenced by 2 factors. First, bad weather. We did have a nasty storm a week or two ago. I don’t know if that counts. In fact, a friend found one on the ground and brought it to folks that know what to do. Second, not enough insects to feed on might push them to leave early. That would be my guess. There’s also the possibly that the colony that was near my location left exceptionally early and others might be seeing them elsewhere, hence the post.

Thanks that’s the end of my post. You can stop here. However, if you don’t know much about Swifts. I’ve decided to write a few of my favorite facts.

Swifts are basically one of the most badass birds ever. Considering the fact that birds are pretty awesome in general, being living descendents of dinosaurs, that makes swifts extra awesome IMHO.

Anyways, first, they are one of the fastest animals on earth and one of the fastest birds at regular flight, not diving though they’re pretty fast at that too. They can reach speeds or 111 kph in regular sustained flight and, while we don’t have much data on their diving speed, it’s believed to be in excess of 200kph

Second, this bird lives in the air. They land very rarely and the most common reason that they do is to breed and raise chicks. Researchers tagged 13 adult birds and several of them flew for the entire 10 months they were being observed and only landed at the next breeding season. Even the ones that did land, flew 95% of that 10 months.

Technically, the record is 10 months because that’s what researches have recorded. However, some believe the actual record could be quite longer than this. You see, juveniles do not become sexually mature until around 4 years of age and that’s if they find a partner. Some juveniles and adults that, for whatever reasons, are not breeding that season will act as helper parents. Some juveniles will periodically stop and check out potential nesting sites, particularly males, the year prior to being sexually active. All that considered, it’s entirely possible that some birds, particularly juveniles, might not land for years until they first breed.

There are tons of great facts and I encourage anyone interested in checking out some short videos on YT and I don’t want to make this too long but I did want to mention a couple more related to their lives on the wing.

The eat on the wing, basically any insects and spiders that will fit into their mouths and that are floating around above the tree line, especially in green areas and above water.

They have evolved a very special skill which is unihemispheric control slow wave sleep. (usws) Basically, they can turn off one hemisphere of their brain, allowing it to rest while the other will maintain what’s minimally necessary to stay in flight and keep an eye out for predators. This can last for several seconds to more than an hour. Like breathing for us, it is mostly an automatic process but they maintain some measure of control based on environmental factors and need.

What nesting material they scavanged is also done in flight. Swifts will fly in a zigzag pattern over water, hitting it with one wing than the other to splash water onto themselves and to catch water for drinking.