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Swallows
oakridge
Posts: 83
While we were waiting for a train on Rotherham Station Christine saw a couple of swallows flying about. The seemed very early in the year to us - what do you think.
We were on our way to Sheffield to have lunch at Granville College and it was excellent. Well worth a try.
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Brilliant. Very possible, plenty late enough. I haven't seen one yet, but they often bypass the central south and go straight up the coasts to their summer haunts. Lucky you. They've been in the country a while, apparently
H-C
Its usually the house martins that get to me first and a couple of days recently I have thought I've heard their twittering but I haven't seen any so far. I love seeing the migrants as I know then that summer is not far behind.
They sound like swallows which often swoop low over water or grassland after insects, as you say. Swifts tend to wheel high in the sky after high-flying insects, screaming as they do so. They have bigger wings and their bodies are more torpedo shaped than swallows. Swallows have chestnut chins and longer elegant forked tails.
Once you know what to look for swallows, swifts and martins are pretty easy to tell apart - take a look here
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/s/swallow/
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I remember watching my grandaughter doing a dressage test on grass. As the horse moved around the arena the swifts were darting around his feet catching the insects as they were disturbed. Luckily he didn't mind but some of the others found it very spooky and were skipping around all over the place.
We have a large colony of swallows and an even bigger one of martins living in and around the barns and old farmhouse here. No sign of any yet this year - should be soon though
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I saw our first ones on Monday this week down here just north of the Pyrenees, so they are definitely on their way up to you all!
Hoorah floralies - thats lovely news.
Good idea M-U
Two of ours arrived yesterday - really early for here, last year it was the 19th.
Always a day for celebration
Well, I started something really interesting here. I can think of some years where the progress would have been completely different. There's no such thing as global warming you know.