All aboard for South Africa In September, swallows will migrate to South Africa and these enterprising fledglings have booked their passage on a boat. Good luck with that!
They're clamorous and all a-flutter as parents fly in with food. A pale, wide gape, a hint of down in their plumage and a food=begging posture define the young birds whose tail streamers begin to show- picked-out in shadows as the sun comes out.
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They're clamorous and all a-flutter as parents fly in with food. A pale, wide gape, a hint of down in their plumage and a food=begging posture define the young birds whose tail streamers begin to show- picked-out in shadows as the sun comes out.
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It is 2nd August so perhaps a month of being well-fed, of flexing their flight muscles and of growing independence and acquired strength will give them the resilience they need for their journey.
They sit passive, preening until the adult approaches with food then they flutter their wings and open wide their gapes and are clamorous. And the adult flies in, delivers insects in an instant, and Is off for more. Today, they fly so low they’re below my knees.
South Africa is the destination for these Cumbrian-bred swallows. If they begin their migration the second week in September that gives them five or six weeks to gain strength and hone their flying skills. Their journey is full of hazards- from weather, predators and starvation. They migrate by day, flying at low altitude, feeding along the way. They cannot carry too much fat in flight. They cover some 200 miles a day, through western France, over the Pyrenees, across Spain and Morocco, across the Sahara.
And there they are atop the boat as the sun comes out to illuminate them, to cast the shadows of their growing streamers on white splashed with their droppings. We see swallows in the tranquil setting of an English countryside but that is only the first stage of their story.
In September, the swallows will muster as they prepare to migrate. It's something I always hope to see. Some years, I simply find they are gone. But to come upon mustering swallows is thrilling. Last time I saw this was on Helsington Barrows and some five hundred swallows gathered in the tops of a cluster of larch trees, skimming so low over the wall that hid me I could hear their wing-beats.
In September, the swallows will muster as they prepare to migrate. It's something I always hope to see. Some years, I simply find they are gone. But to come upon mustering swallows is thrilling. Last time I saw this was on Helsington Barrows and some five hundred swallows gathered in the tops of a cluster of larch trees, skimming so low over the wall that hid me I could hear their wing-beats.
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