Swallows and Geese

 Just for a few days each year, our two most visible migratory birds cross over:   in mid-April the geese are still leaving in their great V shaped skeins heading north to Greenland, and the first swallows have started arriving from Africa.

Swallows are a mixed blessing:   they nest in buildings leaving piles of mess just where you don’t want it.   They can also mess washing drying outside on the line - we are sure that this is done in pure spite as our cats spend all summer trying to stalk them.   Yet their screeching and swooping on summer days as they eat insects on the wing is one of the features of the countryside.   

Cutting a golden field of oats on a hot summer’s day produces clouds of tiny insects, and large flocks of swallows perform acrobatics in a feeding frenzy.    And of course, at the end of the season, on a cooler morning, hundreds of swallows line up on the phone wires chattering excitedly to eachother.   Then suddenly they are gone.

And the geese are back for the winter.