There has been an unprecedented influx of Alpine Swifts in the UK and Ireland this spring with some sites hosting multiple birds. The last Alpine Swift I saw in the UK was whizzing around the Fox & Hounds pub car park in Barnston, Cheshire in 2006!
Hopes were hight that the current influx would result in another Cheshire record and sure enough, whilst we were on Hilbre, two turned up for a brief stay in Hoylake. Try as we might we couldn't get onto them from Hilbre. Earlier that same day one had been seen over opposite side of the Dee and Mersey confluence at Point of Ayr! One also found at Conwy in North Wales and the second day of its stay coincided with me having offered to drive Chris to Queensferry to pick up his Landrover...........already partly on the way to Conwy!
Plans were made that included meeting up with Steve and we were soon heading in the rain to an uninspiring industrial estate just off the A55 North Wales express road at Conwy.
It wasn't long before we were watching the largest of the more regular swift species that grace our shores with their aerial prowess hurtling over a Yodel depot on a typically grim industrial estate - it was probably wondering why it hadn't stayed in the balmy spring weather of the Mediterranean!
Mission accomplished we headed back to Cheshire still wondering how we'd failed to see one over Hilbre!
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