Pallid Swift

Barry Yates
, 23 November 2020
Pallid Swift
Pallid Swift

On 16th November Rye Harbour Nature Reserve had a visit from a very lucky bird.

A Pallid Swift was picked up exhausted in a garden in Somerset and taken to Secret World Wildlife Rescue. It was treated for a couple of weeks for dehydration and starvation. 

Pallid Swift b

A few weeks ago, during severe storms from the south, a few Pallid Swifts were swept from their breeding sites in Spain, and carried north as far as Poland. This one was lucky and had careful help to get it fit and back on its way to spend the winter in Africa.

But where to release it? Edward Mayer of Swift Conservation suggested Rye because thousands of Common Swifts, the only swift that breeds in the UK, feed around Rye during the summer and it's is a nice short hop to France. 

It was driven to Rye by Jamie Kingscott and Marie Densten of SWWR and released in the north part of the nature reserve. It was launched into the westerly wind and quickly turned south and then east and flew rapidly towards Dungeness, so it knew where to go!

We hope that it's now flying in African skies.

Pallid Swift c 9278

Leave a comment

Comments

  • Daniel:

    Thank you! Such a lovely story – makes me more interested in birds and their incredible abilities.

    01 Dec 2020 12:41:00

  • David Rodwell:

    What wonderful, caring people are Jamie Kingscott and Marie Densten of Secret World Wildlife Rescue are to drive all the way from deepest Somerset to Rye just to release a single Pallid Swift. This touching activity shows us all just how caring some people are to make all this effort for just one bird. Well done to all who were involved in saving this lovely little chap.

    01 Dec 2020 12:43:00

  • Jenny Green:

    This tale has cheered me up enormously today…
    We all desperately need good news, not bad news at the moment…..Congratulations to Rye harbour Nature Reserve…..♡♡♡♡♡♡

    01 Dec 2020 13:05:00

  • Julie Allen:

    What a beautiful bird. How lucky to be found and cared for before journeying onto to its winter location. Thank you for sharing.

    01 Dec 2020 13:45:00

  • Rob stewart:

    Absolutely brilliant.

    01 Dec 2020 16:22:43

  • Mike:

    Well done! Tell us more.. what did you feed it on, how much weight did it gain, etc?.. 🙂👍

    16 Oct 2021 20:15:00

Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783127646.70140 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783127646.72750.0261Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783127646.72770.0001Server address: 216.73.217.177
1783127646.72770Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783127646.72770Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/pallid-swift
    [s] => pallid-swift
    [1] => pallid-swift
)
1783127646.72810.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.72910.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783127646.7310.002 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783127646.73170.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783127646.73370.0021 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22592034
1783127646.73430.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22592034
1783127646.73490.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-04 01:14:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-04 01:14:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783127646.73630.0014 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='pallid-swift')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-04 01:14:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783127646.73910.0028 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783127646.73960.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2382 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-04 01:14:00'
1783127646.74040.0008 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783127646.74110.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783127646.74170.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=57 LIMIT 1
1783127646.74220.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1783127646.74260.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=45 LIMIT 1
1783127646.74320.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783127646.74340.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783127646.74430.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-04 01:14:00' AND postSlug='pallid-swift'
1783127646.76550.0212Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783127646.76610.0007 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783127646.76770.0016Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783127646.76790.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783127646.76880.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783127646.77050.0017 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783127646.77340.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.7740.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783127646.77630.0023Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783127646.77630.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783127646.77710.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783127646.77760.0004 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783127646.78020.0027 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783127646.78120.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783127646.7820.0008 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783127646.7850.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.7860.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783127646.78820.0023 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783127646.78880.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783127646.78910.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='6' LIMIT 1
1783127646.78980.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783127646.79020.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='pallid-swift')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-04 01:14:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783127646.79210.0019 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783127646.79260.0005 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783127646.7960.0034Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783127646.7970.001 [6] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2382 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783127646.84720.0502 [6] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783127646.84850.0014Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783127646.84870.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='6' LIMIT 1
1783127646.84970.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783127646.85040.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783127646.8510.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783127646.85310.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.85350.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783127646.85550.002 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783127646.85690.0014 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783127646.85750.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783127646.8580.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783127646.86040.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.86090.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783127646.86290.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783127646.86680.0039 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783127646.86750.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783127646.8680.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783127646.87040.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.87090.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783127646.8730.0021 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783127646.87520.0023 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783127646.87590.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783127646.87660.0006 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783127646.8790.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783127646.87950.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783127646.88150.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783127646.88330.0018Request time: 0.1832
1783127646.88340Process time: 0.1831
1783127646.88340Memory: 1.6217