Menu

Skip to content
Friends of Havelock Rec
  • About Us
    • Who we are
    • Documents
    • Our Vision
    • Our Action Plan – help us decide!
    • Where we are
    • Contact Us
  • Events!
  • Gallery
    • Gallery
    • wild flowers in our park
  • Virtual & Audio Tour
  • Oral & Local History
    • History of the Brickfield and Local Area
    • Community Asset for 20 years
    • History of Local Road Names
    • The Havelock Fisherman and his Attempted Murder
    • Memories and Recollections
    • Remembrance and the Neighbourhood in 1914/18
    • A Selection of Neighbouring Local History
  • Bricks and Local Geology
    • About the brick pit of Coles-Child Lord of the Manor
    • The rocks – or clay – under our feet (the stratigraphy)
    • Pictures of our Brick Pit and Widmore Pit being worked
  • Thanks for our Campaign

Friends of Havelock Rec

Exotic African birds arrive over Havelock Rec!

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Kerry Hood

This weekend the swifts arrived back over Havelock Rec. These African birds journey all the way to the UK to take advantage of our longer daylight hours to raise their families, and only stay until their youngsters leave the nest, before heading straight back to warmer climes.

one clear and 5 fuzzy swift silhouettes

swifts in the air over Havelock Rec

Our local RSPB group is looking for volunteers to help survey the local summer visitors, as their numbers have suffered a decline of over 50%: [see the RSPB page here].

The British Trust for ornithology has tracked their migrations [see the BTO page here] and it is an epic journey: over the notoriously stormy Bay of Biscay, across the Sahara, and all the way south of the equator: 

.

migration path over Spain, Morocco, West Africa to Tanazania

BTO map of swift migrations from Fowlmere to Tanzania

Every day that a bird has a nest, and is going to-and-fro to it, increases the chances of becoming dinner for a predator, so the swifts decrease the amount of time their young are vunerable in the nest by coming north to the UK’s longer daylight hours. Swifts are very air dynamic but it means their legs are not very useful, so if you find one on the ground, they need to be thrown up in the air before they can fly away.  Once they fledge, they spend about 2 years on the wing, even sleeping in the air.  This means that they can’t help their young once they leave the nest, so they depart straight back to Africa.

 

Posted in Information scenic-n-wildlife

Join us on Facebook

Have your say:

Email us at http://friendsofhavelockrec.org or at havelockrecfriends@gmail.com

Local History, Photos & Reminisces

Browse our collection of remarkable local reminisces in our oral history pages look at the park's previous incarnation as a working brickpit or a summary of it all here.

See also:

  • Bromley Civic Society
  • Friends of Whitehall Rec
  • Bromley Friends Forum
  • London Friends Network

Check out the Gallery

Early morning landscape by Jon Emmanuel
Landscape by Jon Emmanuel
IYellow Lab Daphne playing with her friend Molly
It's snowing!
evening light over our park
snow angel!
2008 double rainbow brickfield
IMG_1001-3
snowmen and snow forts in 2009
10422371_10152598816492595_4131414265842496626_n
2002jul02 tansy with little cricket bat
HotBalloon060630-3
033 field water fight
dragging the sledge back up the dip
The firemen parachuted in to raise money in 2005
fun-in-the-snow
fun-in-the-snow2
fun-in-the-snow3
fun-in-the-snow4
fun-in-the-snow snowman making
sledging-the-dip
dog in the snow
15jul01_sunset_over_brickfield_havelock_rec.jpg
14jun08 50490 view pink clouds brickfield.JPG
15feb28 dog walkers in field.jpg
andy_loakes_snow_on_the_brickfield.jpg
P1090838.JPG
15mar14-brickfield-bulbplanting.jpg
16jul18 bug-day-tent-view.jpg
14jun08 50495 view sunset brickfield.JPG
15jun29_4567-brickfield-field-bindweed-768x1024.jpg
15jun29_4583-brickfield-elderflower-768x1024.jpg
15mar14-di-and-felix-litterpicking-brickfield.jpg
16jan18_volunteers-planting-hedge-brickfield.jpg
16jun12 big-lunch-tug-war.jpg
16sep12-hoedown-2.jpg
17sep09-brickfield-hoedown-20059-baker-girl-beauty-dancing-1024x768.jpg
17sep09-brickfield-hoedown-20064-andy-emma-connie-pimms-tent-768x1024.jpg
17sep09-brickfield-hoedown-20071-girls-umbrella-rainbowjpg-1024x768.jpg
1924 o-peills-brick-pit-half-mile-SW-Bickley-Stn-looking-S-16386_synch-l.jpg
1940 havelock-rd-bomb-damage-1940-4-e1437292677505-1024x699.jpg
P7190918-3rd-bromley-on-brickfield-1024x768.jpg
see our photos in full size..

Categories

  • activities
  • Audio Tour Transcript Page
  • campaign
  • documents
  • Events
  • front-page
  • History of Roadnames
  • Information
  • Local History
  • Media
  • Neighbouring Local/Oral History
  • News Letter
  • news-items
  • Oral History in the Words of Local Residents
  • scenic-n-wildlife
  • Sponsors
  • Uncategorised
  • Virtual & Audio Memory Tour

Recent Posts

  • Do the Audio/Virtual tour of our Park!
  • Transcript of Stop 12 on Virtual & Audio Tour Featuring Memories & Local History
  • Transcript of Stop 11 on Virtual & Audio Tour Featuring Memories & Local History
  • Transcript of Stop 10 on Virtual & Audio Tour Featuring Memories & Local History
  • Transcript of Stop 9 on Virtual & Audio Tour Featuring Memories & Local History

Extras

  • Bromley Civic Society
  • Friends of Whitehall Rec
Proudly powered by WordPress
Theme: Flint by Star Verte LLC