Swallows – a symbol of summer – but where do they come from?

The swallows returned to our stable yard on 8th April, earlier than last year when it was 12th April. These dates are etched in my memory for a reason – the arrival of swallows signals the end of winter for me and I can’t wait to see them perched on the electricity wires. Already they are flitting in and out of the stables and the hay barn, repairing old nests and building new ones.

One of the first three arrivals last year flew in the open window of our upstairs bathroom and into the jaws of our lazy cat. A little bird which had managed to fly all the way from South Africa, covered about 200 miles per day, survived the hazards of exhaustion, starvation and storms, was beheaded and left on the bathroom floor. The cat didn’t even bother to eat it. No dinner for her that night as she was in serious disgrace.

Lack of rain in April is a problem for swallows – they need mud to build their nests. Swallows, by the way, are the ones with swallowbuildingnest.jpglong, forked tails which build on beams and rafters in outhouses and barns. House martins have no chestnut/red colour on their throats and have more white. They don’t have forked tails and they’re the ones who often upset house owners by building under the eaves and leaving messy deposits on the ground below. I think it’s ingenious how they stick their nests to the walls but they don’t like our house because, with no big eaves, our roof doesn’t offer enough shelter for them.

Swallows in Ireland and Britain have two or three broods over the course of our summer and willswallowfeedingyoung.jpg start to line up on the electricity wires again in September, preparing for their marathon journey back to South Africa for the winter. From Ireland, they fly to England, on to France, down through Spain to Morocco and then across the Sahara Desert to South Africa. They always remind me of fighter jets – agile and streamlined, darting across the stable yard to dive bomb the dogs and cat or gliding high in the air on a warm evening to catch insects on the wing.