Swallow

One Swallow may not make a summer but it certainly cheers you up when you see the first of the year! In the Blackwater Valley Swallows usually appear at first in April, a few at a time and then in early May they appear in waves and can be seen almost anywhere, often over water and where there are suitable nesting places. I’ve seen them throughout the Valley but not always in high numbers.

The Swallow, now more strictly called the Barn Swallow, migrates from Africa, south of the Equator. There is plenty of food there in the summer, but the plentiful supply here in Britain and most of Europe means it can find all it needs here with more nest sites available. Swallows can be reported from mid-March, but these are unusual sightings, possibly even of wintering birds that are known to stay in tiny numbers in Britain. They feed on insects so the food supplies are short until our spring and summer arrives.

Spring passage involves sorting them out from their near relatives, the Sand Martin, an earlier migrant, and the House Martin, which appears at much the same time as the Swallow. Sand Martins are brown birds with a band across their chests and House Martins are blue but have a conspicuous white rump to help you sort them out. Swallows have long tail streamers and a glossy metallic blue-back which reflects the sun beautifully and if you can see one closely, maybe when perched on a telephone wire, the wonderful red throat adds another rich colour to admire. All three of these migrants are more likely to be seen in the air, sometimes together, rather than perched during May.

Swallow (left): This bird has long tail streamers and a red face.
Swift (centre): Wings forms a sickle shape in flight. Flies high in the sky often accompanied by high pitched screaming, particularly around buildings.
House Martin (left): Nests on houses andhas a white rump.
 

 The habitat of Swallows is generally pastures and crops with a plentiful supply of small flying insects, but they also like water which has plenty of insects. Important for them are barns and outbuildings they can nest in and wires and roof ridges and even dead tree branches on which they can sit and preen in the sun. On autumn migration when young birds and those migrating from more northern climes arrive, it can be quite a spectacle to see hundreds of Swallows over sites such as Moor Green Lakes or Tongham Pond where the overhead wires provide a good resting place.

I have concerns about the future for Swallows. They are a species with an unfavourable conservation status throughout Europe and from personal observation I feel there is a decline, caused to some degree perhaps by loss of nest sites in our ever cleaner and tidier countryside. Where barns and outbuildings used to exist they have been demolished or converted into living accommodation and old, unsafe buildings are no longer left. Coupled with this there have been worrying trends in Southern Africa. There are several British and European projects investigating Swallows at present which should tell us more about this quintessential summertime bird.

Be on the lookout for Swallows in the Valley until the last few depart in September and October, and listen for their twittering song as they hawk for insects over fields, lakes and the river itself. Once they have gone, so certainly summer will have gone too!  

Colin Wilson

Berkshire Ornithological Club
www.berksoc.org.uk