Swallows on the Avon

Today on my Sunday morning survey I was lucky enough to spot some young swallows down by the willow. Each year swallows frequent the fields around the mill, it is amazing to watch them as the swoop low over the corn and zip around the trees and on occasion around me hawking for flying insects.

So far the number of swallows this year had seemed low and I was unsure of how successful their breeding would be. There are a range of farm buildings at the top of the hill where they nest. Swallow numbers have gradually declined since 2011 although they still remain healthy as a population.

This year I first saw a swallow on the 17th May which is on average 3 weeks later than in previous years. This is no doubt due to bad weather in the Mediterranean during early April. Such long distance migrants are susceptible to adverse weather conditions, in this case high winds caused the death of many (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/10/high-winds-kill-thousands-of-migrating-birds-in-disaster-over-greece)

Three young swallows were perched in a willow beside the river, usually the sit in the isolated hawthorn in the field or in one of the tall dead alders. Here they were well protected by the vegetation. You can see that this individual did not fledge too long ago. It still has fluffy down on the chest and there is significant colour surround the beak wear the gape remains.

The adults hunted across the fields and along the river but only seemed to feed the left most individual perhaps because he was more accessible. Eventually the juveniles moved of to practice flying and one of the males stopped for a perch. This is a lucky shot, away from the nest sites and on wires when the are gathering to migrate south it is uncommon to see adults settled.

Here you can see the bold red chin and mask and really see the long wings and streamer tails. They are such slight and elegant birds it amazing that they have the stamina to fly such vast distances each year.