Believe it or not, it’s a sunny bank holiday weekend
EVEN on this unruly isle the weather is supposed to abide by certain rules. Chief among them is the notion that a bank holiday weekend should be dull and dreary.
Raindrops hissing off a barbecue grill and picnics howled off a windy hill – the sort of days designed to make us think perhaps Mondays are better spent in the office, after all.
But what’s this? Another bank holiday in May in which glorious sunshine is forecast. As with the three-day break at the start of the month, expect long spells of prolonged warmth.
One is a fluke; two a practical miracle. Such is life these days where the tenets of meteorology are being rewritten by the month.
Another example is the swallows. Or rather, the lack of them. Birdwatching friends of mine have mentioned that they have hardly seen any so far this year – despite the birds typically arriving on these shores in April.
Several letter writers to The Daily Telegraph have also mentioned the absence of swallows in places where they typically thrive.
Personally, I have only seen one pair so far – a few days ago on the crest of a hill near my home: munching Peak District midges to refuel following the mammoth expedition from South Africa.
I’m afraid I have no easy answer for why it has taken the swallows so long to arrive this year. Migrating 6,000 miles is obviously a hazardous time for the birds and they are susceptible to starvation, exhaustion and storms.
I hope their absence is nothing more than a case of simply being waylaid by a glut of insects on the continent as a result of the EU’S recent decision to ban neonicotinoids (the world’s most widely used pesticide).
Here’s hoping another marvellous weekend of bank holiday weather may tempt a few more over. For the sun may be shining, but without our swallows summer is barely deserving of the name.