Promise of Summer

The first swallows were back with us last Monday and are gradually building up in numbers as they return from their wintering grounds.  As always I heard the chatter before seeing the birds themselves.  What amazing little birds they are, to navigate all the way from Africa coming back to their summer homes each year.  Sadly there seem to be less of them than I remember as a child and I'm sure it isn't my memory playing tricks.  I suppose there are less suitable nest sites as old buildings have been repaired, demolished or reused and the access blocked.  I find it very sad that such an emblem of our summer is slowly dwindling away.  I don't think I would want to live in a world that doesn't include the chatter of swallows as they hawk for insects through the summer months and line up chattering on the wires before departing for the winter.  What a sad world it would be.

Some Things I Don't Do

My father used to smoke, read a newspaper and drink tea.  All three seemed to make him miserable or perhaps he was just normally miserable and these habits didn't help.  I suspect that I associate all three activities with being miserable and grumpy so I avoid the first two and only drink tea occasionally.  I have never even tried smoking, not even as a teenager and I have no intention of trying now.  Spending good money to buy a dried plant leaf then burn it rolled in paper and inhale the smoke seems a rather strange and pointless habit, especially as it can enhance the chances of lung cancer.  Yes its a great idea isn't it?  As for newspapers, the only use I have ever had for a newspaper is to light the fire and I have found fire lighters work better.  Reading a newspaper as a way of keeping up to date with current affairs is a very poor choice, all you get is one persons view of the event and this is always biased to what he or his editor wishes to portray. I get my information on current affairs by not listening or half listening to the radio while I am driving, by not really listening to several different stations throughout the day I get an overall picture from the little that passes into my conscious brain of what is happening.  It works for me!  As for drinking tea, I do this occasionally, less than once a week.  I don't really have anything against tea though I am not sure if I like it best black or white, with or without sugar. But to put it simply I prefer coffee.   I don't know that the above behaviour makes me any less miserable than my father but I do hope it does.

A Swift, Where?

At this time of year I am looking to see the first swallow returning from the wintering grounds in Africa.  I find these brave little birds amazing and always look forward to their return.  The funny thing is I almost always hear the first swallow before I see it, they seem to delight in sitting on a roof top or electricity line and chattering their joy at coming home.  Though I don't consciously try I find my ears are tuned to any sound that approximates the chatter of a swallow, twice in the last few days I have started searching as a sound similar that of a swallow has caught my attention.  But that isn't what I want to tell of, I was in Carlton store unloading my truck when a bird sound caught my attention and it wasn't a swallow, it was the scream of a swift.  I couldn't believe my ears and started searching the sky for the author of the scream fully expecting to see the earliest arriving swift I have ever seen.  The scream was repeated, then repeated again, I finally located the source of the sound.  Just across the road sitting on a wire was a starling and as well as its usual song it was occasionally throwing in the scream of a swift  as a variation.  This isn't the first time I've been fooled by a starling but I've never heard one mimic a swift before, a duck and a magpie but never a swift.  I suspect that the bird was raised in a nest in close proximity to nesting swifts and had copied the sound as only a starling can.