The high life

SIR – Duncan Reeves (Letters, March 14) describes the miraculous language of bees. Equally extraordinary is the behaviour of swifts.

Some stay airborne continuously for four years after leaving the nest, and come back to the place where they were born, despite spending winters in the southern hemisphere each year.

We had five nests in our house in the 1970s – now all gone. They were a delight to watch.

N J S Ellis

Darlington, Co Durham