The question was "What did swallows do for their gatherings in autumn, before the invention of telephone and other wires?" On August 3rd we had Gilbert White of Selborne and Marwick, a neighbour, writing of church roofs and towers and other eminent buildings as their perches, also trees, especially dead, bare trees. Now Patrick Peril of Ennis Road, Limerick, adds to the score of roosting places, even though we now do have telephone lines etc.
"Late Septemberish almost, two years ago," he writes, "while standing in six-foot high reeds on the brow of the Shannon I had an extraordinary and pleasant experience with swallows. It was late dusk, almost dark, with a stiffish breeze blowing, and as I looked onto the brighter river, I saw flocks of small birds which I thought at first were starlings, flying back and forth along the estuary bank. Suddenly, all along the reed line and in front of me they began to hover and I recognised them as swallows. Then, for the first time in my lifetime of almost 50 years on the Shannon, I was looking at swallows perched and swaying on reeds, some possibly closer than a foot to my face.
"They were unaware to my presence as I was well camouflaged and I stayed perfectly still. When they had settled down I withdrew slowly. No one locally believed that swallows land on reeds. Of the species we have seen on reeds, starlings are the most common, and we would often find lots of them dead amongst reeds during reed harvesting." That's a new one to this reader of our friend's letter. On the river we know best, there used to be reeds galore, often growing well back into the marshy land. The Boyne drainage catchment area did for them. Hardly a reed to be seen.
Quite another topic. Paddy Lysaght wrote from Limerick some time ago to agree that the foxglove is his favourite flower, too. "Many years ago when I grew up in North Kerry they were on each side of the road, standing to attention on calm days, nodding when the south-western hurried past. They are not as plentiful these last few years. Something to do with fertilisers I suspect". And he gives a few names for it in Irish. A great flower. The little man standing in the wood, as a Germany rhyme has it.