The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: Fleecewife on May 08, 2016, 11:43:51 am
-
I saw my first ever swift yesterday. What an amazing flyer 8)
I found this with all sorts of interesting facts about swifts: https://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Amazing%20swift%20facts_tcm9-279347.pdf (https://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Amazing%20swift%20facts_tcm9-279347.pdf)
-
A bird I really miss ... loved watching them fly overhead as 1sunbathed in the garden when I was a teenager.
-
They're wonderful aren't they? Such a fantastic swooping flight. :excited:
-
And brave too. I saw a couple mobbing a sparrowhawk this afternoon. They make the hawk look as though it's hardly moving. Hawk tried to grab a collared dove the other day but I disturbed it. I fear it will feast on sparrows and blue tits as usual.
-
Nature's way MF and sad though it is to see She knows what She's doing.
-
I thought I had a couple of Swifts and then saw they had brown heads so were Swallow. I have still enjoyed watching them and they have taken up residence in the goat house and are building a nest using mainly goat poo. Well use what you have to hand!
-
There's a muddy bank on the river Teme near us where the swallows and swifts come down in dozens and sometimes hundreds to pick up mud for their nests.
-
The river Teign near us is home to sand martins, they are usually the first to arrive, before the swallows. It grieves me (but probably not the birds!) that sections of the bank give way each winter, destroying nesting holes.
I imagine them almost in sight of "home", wings aching with tiredness, saying to each other..nearly there dear, I'll get the kettle on.... and arriving to find their home gone. They soon set to though and make another!