Swallows: coming soon to a field near you

ANY day now... any day now...

The swallow, harbinger of spring and summer, is heading back to breed in Britain and should be arriving right about now.

Where I live on west Dartmoor I tend to see my first swallow between April 3-10. It can depend on the prevailing conditions as migrating flocks obviously like to have the breeze at their back rather than battling into a head wind, and last year my first sighting was on April 1 in perfect conditions.

At the time of writing I haven’t yet spotted one this year. While cold, the weather over the last few days hasn’t been overly hostile, so I’m guessing they should be crossing the Channel – and there have been records trickling in from elsewhere.

Swallows spend the winter in South Africa and return north to raise young. It is a marvel of migration that a bird weighing slightly less than a household AA battery can power its way such a distance. Our long summer days and relatively plentiful insect life obviously make it worth the effort. Impatient males, keen to secure a nesting site, tend to be the first arrivals. Initially sighted in small numbers, before long swallows will be present across Britain – a mass invasion hundreds of thousands strong, accompanied by other skyriding species including house martins and swifts.

I have already spotted a couple of early migrants – the wheatear and the chiffchaff. And as April rolls on there will be plenty more – from cuckoos and flycatchers to warblers galore.

Last year the Lizard peninsula came up trumps with the first UK swallow of 2021, spotted on February 16 – astonishingly early. Over the last two decades the median first reported date in the UK is February 23, with the bulk arriving well over a month later.

Swallows are slender, streamlined birds with a dark back that has a deep blue sheen, an off-white front and rusty red feathering around the face and throat. They are graceful in flight, swooping low after aerial insects, and can be seen perched on telephone wires, flying over meadows and playing fields or snatching a drink from the surface of lakes. They also have a cheery, chirpy song.

One of the easiest ways to identify them from other similar birds is by their noticeably forked tail. This is most marked in males, whose outer tail feathers have developed into long thin streamers. Sand martins are similar in appearance and early arrivals, beating the swallows back to Britain. They are browner looking and have only a slight short fork in the tail, and a white underneath with a dark chest band.

So, it’s time to keep an eye on the sky.