Ingham’s W RLD
ONCE upon a time life was so simple, nature so predictable. Swallows would delight us by arriving in the spring, raise their young on summer insects and then fly back to South Africa in September or October. Soon winter visitors would replace them, fleeing the Nordic and Russian ice for milder Britain.
Well, one bit of the plan is still working: for the past few days my garden has hosted a Viking invasion. Blackbirds and song thrushes, almost certainly winter migrants, have been joined by true Scandinavians, fieldfares and redwings, to gorge on windfall apples in the frozen grass.
But the changing seasons seem to have passed some summer visitors by. A swallow was spotted yesterday – in December – on St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly, about 6,000 miles from the reedbeds of southern Africa where the rest of his tribe are currently feasting on insects.
Just as one swallow doesn’t make a summer, so one on its own doesn’t make a migration revolution. But he was not alone in overstaying his welcome. On Wednesday a house martin was swooping over Land’s End. On Tuesday two swallows were seen at the RSPB’s Minsmere reserve in Suffolk.
And on Monday a swallow and a sand martin visited the British Trust for Ornithology’s Norfolk HQ. At least they went where they were sure to be appreciated.
The BTO’s Paul Stancliffe says that just 10 years ago these sightings would have been considered incredibly late – but life never stands still.
In 2009 about 10 swallows stayed here for the whole winter, surviving in sheltered seaweed-rich bays in Cornwall and South Wales where there were plenty of insects.
Two years ago another swallow spent the winter on a Sussex sewage farm.
It seems that the current cold snap has proved too much for this year’s late swallows, which are finally fleeing south.
But they may have been following the example of blackcaps. These warblers winter in North Africa and breed here but over the past 60 years blackcaps from Bavaria and Austria have rebelled: lots of them have shunned the Med to come here for winter.
If they survive, they are in pole position in spring to grab the best nest sites in Germany because their migration is shorter than the sun-loving traditionalists.
Of course the late swallows may just be birds with their wires crossed. But if the trend continues, perhaps one day Christmas robins will be replaced by festive swallows. WORKING with nature is so much better than fighting it. So the National Trust and Exmoor farmers have used natural flood defences to protect the Somerset villages of Allerford and Bossington. They planted trees on riverbanks to slow water run-off, created pools and mini-reservoirs to hold the rain and turned fields into water meadows. Last month Storm Angus sent river levels soaring – but the villages escaped. BIRDS with oddly shaped beaks keep popping up in gardens. They include a great spotted woodpecker with a crossed bill, a blackbird with a long, curved upper bill and a collared dove with a long downward curved beak. If you see any, please google BTO Big Garden Beak Watch and send in the details. Luckily many sufferers adapt to their disability. GREEN TIP: Remove lids and tops from bottles and jars when recycling. RUDOLPH the red-nosed reindeer has every reason to curse climate change: it is threatening his family. In normal winters reindeer can dig through snow to get at lichen. But in 2006 and 2013 thousands starved to death in Siberia, reports Biology Letters. Mild weather led to autumn rain that froze – making it impossible to get at food. A WORLD first hydrogen-powered double-decker bus was unveiled by London Mayor Sadiq Khan this week – the first of at least 20 to come to the capital. About 9,400 people die early every year in London from air pollution so the hydrogen bus is a big step forward. Its only emission is water.