Swifts a summer make
found its way into the house and was observed fluttering, panic stricken, up and down the stair-well. Our ridiculously lazy cat sat there watching it, not even bothering to inspect it each time it fell exhausted to the floor! The bird was eventually caught and returned to its outdoor environment.
However, the starlings are by no means alone in expressing themselves in such an animated way because those other avian dancing dervishes have pitched up – on time as usual – in mid-May. As the late Ted Hughes so graphically wrote: “They’ve made it again/ Which means the globe’s still working, the Creation’s/ Still waking refreshed, our summer’s/Still to come…” Yes, there they were, swifts once more hurtling across village roof-tops.
Hughes continued: “And here they are, here they are again/Erupting across yard stones/Shrapnel-scatter terror. Frog-gapers/Speedway goggles, international mobsters …” Nothing, absolutely nothing, announces its return to these shores as raucously, or screams so violently, as a returning swift.
In two local villages on successive days, I watched and listened to those black arrows, hurtling their way in between the chimney pots. Such is the velocity of their travel that I am almost persuaded to don a hard hat! And it isn’t that they have been in any way physically constrained during their winter sojourn in Africa for these birds – even now crash diving around the tiles – will not have touched down since at least a year ago. Indeed, older birds if they did not breed last year, will have probably been exclusively airborne for a minimum of two years. The only moments of sleep enjoyed by swifts are catnaps at high altitude. And, of course, they feed on the wing. Hence Hughes’s reference to “frog gapers” for they literally fly with their wide beaks open in order to catch flying insects.
A hard hat may have been required too when hundreds, perhaps thousands of starlings roosted on city buildings on mainly winter nights before the authorities devised methods of discouraging them. Drawn to such roosting places by the warmth generated by the vast array of electrical appliances, starlings are utterly unaware of the deposits they leave behind! The pavements below are perpetually showered so rather than a hard hat, an umbrella might offer more protection!
It might easily be concluded that both starlings and swifts are more regarded as urban birds than residents of the rural landscape although they are also seen hereabouts. I have on visits to our cities on summer days noted large numbers of swifts soaring high above both Edinburgh and Glasgow. While these two birds are very different in every conceivable way, they are both dependent on insect life. While Swifts catch their prey on the wing, starlings, with their long, narrow beaks, extract them from the ground. So if midges, the scourge of tourists, fall victim to swifts, wireworms and leatherjackets, persistent crop pests, are very much on the starling’s hit list! Thus, both may be regarded as useful!
If both produce coarse and raucous vocalisations, both also fly absolutely wondrously: the swift with fantastic speed and vigour, the starling corporately, weaving utterly magical, mystical patterns as if guided by some singleminded artistic deity. Both are supreme aviators and for those skills alone, deserving of our admiration.