The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2023 is now available to download from the Bird Reports page or from here

WHITLINGHAM: Red-rumped Swallow (no, I didn't see it)

13th May 2013

There is probably no more frustrating time to hear that a rare bird has been seen on your local patch than Monday morning. I had been at work for around an hour when Neil came in, asking if I had checked BirdGuides recently. It turned out a Red-rumped Swallow had been seen at Whitlingham at 08:12, a site first and a bird I've never seen. It could have been a nervy day waiting to see whether it was still there when I finished work, but as it turned out a text from Justin told me that it hadn't been seen since 08:25. I had checked through the hirundines on the previous day to no avail, which combined with the large arrival of Swifts on Monday (estimate of 1000, up from c300 on Sunday) suggests that the Red-rumped Swallow had just arrived. Interestingly one was seen early morning on 14th May 2012 at Colney GPs, so hopefully we are starting a trend of mid-May Norwich area records; although hopefully the next one will stick around!

I'm not sure that there are any, but if any photographs were taken I would be very interested in seeing them.

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