It's nearly April, and so, nearly swallow time. That is, normal swallow time, with the bulk arriving in May, but with all this global warming upsetting our calculations, who is to say that they won't make it in the last days of March? We get a powerful invasion of them - 250,000 pairs breed throughout Ireland, Cabot reckons in his Irish Birds, with swifts at about 200,000 pairs and house martins a mere 100,000 pairs. Swallows are the ones with the lovely long tail streamers. The bird the poets celebrate: "Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow". The gathering of the birds on telephone wires when ready to migrate back to Africa is a feature that even the most unobservant of humans recognises. Ever hear how long it takes them to get to their goal? Well, in the current English Field, Willy Newlands tells us that the young swallows migrate by making hops of 125 to 180 miles every five days or so, speeding up as they get farther south. They take a full four months to get down to South Africa. "The adults travel faster and can cover 6,200 miles in forty days."
And part of the question as to where the swallows go in winter can be "into West African cooking pots." For a patch of tall grass, says the Field article, on a hillside at Ebok-Boje in southern Nigeria is one important stopover for migrating swallows. At peak season, a million birds are estimated to roost overnight - and more than 200,000 are eaten by local bird-catchers. It's not all as it was for the swallows who come to Ireland, Cabot reminds us. Farming methods have changed, and there is not the same flying insect life about the modern yards as there used to be: bluebottles, hoverflies, horseflies, etc. Also farm buildings have changed and are not so accessible. Even some of our rivers, polluted or at least less pristine, do not offer the same fly life as in the past. The sight of a swallow diving down, weaving around a bend or two and then soaring up into the sky, again and again, was one of the thrills of summer.
House martins are thought to be declining. One house, near a river, which has deep eaves has not for two years seen the nests of this bird which were of long standing. Finally a footnote from Cork in the Field, dated 1958: a letter reads "I noticed a swallow flying up and down over a pool on the river Lee on February 10th. I watched it for long periods and am in no doubt as to its identity." (Two other observers identified it.) And the writer asks if this is not extremely early for a swallow to be seen? The editor answered that swallows will occasionally remain here through the winter. Y