Now you see them…

The season of the swift is a short one, so enjoy it while you can

Ben Hoare

OUR SUMMER OF SWIFTS ENDS ALL TOO suddenly. One day, you look up at dusk and the darkening sky is full of common swifts careering around the rooftops – these are the fastest birds on the planet in level flight. Twenty four hours later, there is no screaming and there are no sickle-shaped silhouettes hurtling past. The swifts have gone. Britain and Ireland lie at the northwestern edge of the common swift’s breeding range, and most of the swifts that migrate here from Africa will head south again at the end of July or in early August. Incredibly, the younger non-breeding birds – usually one or two years old – often depart even earlier, in late June or early July, having flown all the way from the tropics to spend…

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Bbc Wildlife (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2024

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