Yesterday ...... 1 Swift Today .............. 2 Swifts. And very welcome they were. And there's a hint of a pattern there. In the previous articule I mentioned that "they" generally stayed for 100 days. So ...let's assume we had 100 days, and every day there was one more Swift. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 etc until day 100 No. 1 2 3 4 5 100. Total 1 3 6 10 15 ...etc..... ? So ... what would that total be on day 100 ? There's the tough and tedious way to do it. And there's the clever-clogs quick way to do it. If you "do it" the "adding-them-all-up" way, you'll most likely get lost and have to begin again .... And if you're stuck, I will reveal the nifty way of doing it in an upcoming thingy.
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Aha ! At 0809 BST this morning, eagle-eyes me spotted the first Swift of the Year ! It swerved and circled way up over the house .... but, of course ........ .... I couldn't hear it. This is the third year of not being able to hear Swifts. A sad demise. I've read that they stay for 100 days .. .. but I suspect that it would be less than that up 'ere in't North like . But here's the thing .... it is much harder to note the "last" one .... whatever the species. And my faithful readers ( Doris and Gordon Syringe) will recall an odd idea that I mooted. ( Mooted !! ) And it is this ... do our summer migrants lay eggs and raise young when they get back to Africa ? I mean, why not ? When they get there all the resident birds are breeding like mad. So why not "our" Swallows etc ? Even The King of Bryher didn't have an answer to that one. It was my idea, so there. © And I've also come up with an obvious way of finding out that doesn't involve trips to Africa .... surely, if they did breed down there, then their young offspring would most likely fly up to the Northern Hemisphere with or without their parents, and we would spot them, and ringers would catch them and age them. ( That massive picture up at the top describes the features of juv Swifts ... why the outer bits aren't there I don't know. ) So ... has any of that been done ? I've no idea. ... and talking of "going home" .... here's the music. Back then I was a sprightly youth, as was The Significant Otter. We were living (?) in London, and I was working at The Polytechnic of Central London, and she was working nearby. And that meant we could meet up at dinner-time . So there we were in Holland Park, and back then I could actually hear Goldcrests. It's all part of the sprightliness I mentioned up there. My guide for London Parks Bird Life was, oddly, " Bird Life in the Royal Parks" . A slim volume, which I can no longer find. I wish I could .... you'll see why below. BUT ....... sit up straight and pay attention you lot .... a funny thing is arriving shortly... here's exactly what I wrote in my now rather old and battered diary........ " I've come to the conclusion that the table at the back of "Bird Life in the Royal Parks" was prepared by an idiot. There is one account headed "Hedge-Sparrow" and immediately below it another account headed " Dunnock" and entertainingly the writer has entered separate observations quite happily !" So much for the Dept. of the Environment !!! I wish I had kept that venerable tome. Maybe I have ...but I haven't found it. Anyway, here's a tangentially relevant song .... I'm writing this the morning after the soggiest windiest day in living memory. I've only just recovered from it. Well, relentless rain was forecast, and they were right ! Luckily, I got out early, and walked down to the river/flood under nasty-looking clouds. The Flood, however, was still very dry.... just 8 Pied Wagtails to be seen. And as for the saltmarsh, nowt. As I walked back, having perused/pursued a Lesser Throat, it got rather ominous and the rain started..... as did the wind. Luckily, it didn't start to get torrential until I got home ,when it really kicked in ,and by 11 the gauge had 17mm of rain . From then on it chucked it down, with added hefty winds to add to the mess. But, I couldn't resist going out again a bit further afield, and on the marina were 40+ Swallows ... but nothing else ... no HMs, no Smartins, and most definitely no Swifts. They must have had very slim pickings in that weather. As did I. If I was them, I'd bog off back to Africa ! But they are programmed to do what they do. They aren't "thinking" about anything. So I drove back home, windscreen wipers on overdrive, and that was that. Most of the garden birds were very soggy and bedraggled ( an excellent word) by mid-afternoon. If they don't manage to get dried they're going to have a dangerously cold night. This morning the rain gauge had 40mm of rain ..... but with the ferocious winds, which tend to blow the rain more horizontally and missing the gauge, I suspect there was a lot more. Here's the usual totally irrelevant song ...... |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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