08/11/25 Pallid Swift & Pallas’s Warbler

Southerly airflow over night turning very light WNW before dawn. The first bird I got my bins on this morning was a Pallid swift.

I walked the lower path along the cliff tops above the harbour and at 07.35 I picked up a Swift sp coming towards me from the direction of Foxhill down. Initially a silhouette, the dull early morning light was behind me at least and as the bird grew closer I switched between bins and camera so as not to miss out on either visual.

Very aware of the current influx of (mostly) pallid swifts and having rehearsed finding this species many times in my head I looked quickly for the most obvious Common swift features in an attempt to rule Pallid out . Namely the ‘white winged black tern’ like underwing pattern shown by Common swift and the more contrasting head pattern with a clearer distinction between white forehead, chin and rest of the face. These features could not be detected and instead the bird appeared diffusely marked with smooth fades between features on a paler head generally that was itself Punctuated by an isolated dark eye sat in a pale surround of ear coverts lores etc. The underwing aswell was fairly featureless and no pale leading edge to wing.

After coming overhead The bird meandered somewhat, moving fairly slowly for a swift and caught insects over the eastern docks above the cliffs infront of me at a distance of 50-100 m, few photos were taken at this greater distance except in an attempt to capture the shape of the spread tail. At this further distance I watched the bird as it moved away, staying on it incase it came close again.  it was basically moving out over the harbour and drifting NE but over the channel rather than hugging the cliffs.

People talk about a ‘blunt winged’ look to Pallid swifts which I have not really picked up on myself when watching a lone swift in the past, I have however noticed the reverse; Common swifts looking ‘sharp winged’ after watching Pallid swifts in places where both occur (Tarifa in spring for example) The bird did present an overall shape of large head and shorter back end.

Views had not been excellent but neither were they poor and I felt certain that I had been watching a juvenile pallid swift so put the news out and called Phil C to let the bockhill guys know what was potentially coming their way.

A quick photo edit for the purposes of this post, I have more images look through but Photographs are fairly poor with high ISO and will need some work before submitting a description.

With the realisation that the swift had moved on I continued along the cliffs. A warm, sunny and still morning ensued, many Skylarks were arriving off the channel, a single Brambling and a small flock of Tree sparrows came in at Lighthouse down, moving North. As I walked back through Langdon hole I heard some Goldcrest calls followed by the sudden squeak of a Pallas’s Warbler! It was right next to me, low down feeding in a Blackthorn at knee level.

The bird was vocal and showed well, some very close views. Perfect.

My first here since a few birds in 2022 and the past 2 autumns without them have felt lacking for sure. I am now away for a couple weeks, it seems a terrible time to leave Kent with so much turning up but I am immensely happy with today’s birds and still have a stab at the last days of November when I return.