Birds and beers
In the past few weeks, as summer has finally got into its stride, I've had reason to visit various beer gardens. After a 'hard' day in the office, what's nicer than a beer garden with a glass of your favourite beverage and some good company?
It just happens that beer gardens can be great for wildlife. Last week, on a cloudy evening, threatening to rain, we'd been out to watch some marsh harriers. The male harrier flapped in, with a small mammal or bird in his talons. As he approached, two young harriers flew up from the reedbed, begging to be fed with a piercing, high-pitched squeak. Father dropped the food, a youngster grabbed it mid-air with its feet and flew off.
We were feeling pretty impressed with what we'd seen, so dropped in at a village pub on the way home for a pint and some nuts to celebrate. It was just warm enough to sit outside, so we took a picnic table. The cloud was low and grey, the air damp, and, though we could hear swifts screaming away, they were invisible!
I scanned the skies... Swifts chase flying insects around, so low cloud and damp weather tend to bring them to lower altitudes. Still, no swifts to be seen... surely they were up there somewhere? No matter how hard I looked, all I could see was dense cloud about to drop a load of rain on me.
After 10 minutes, a feeble rainbow emerged from the sky. As I admired it, there they were! Beneath the arc was a group of about 30 swifts, still screaming and hurtling through the air. So I didn't find gold at the end of the rainbow, but I did find some fabulous birds.
It won't be too much longer before they're gone - swifts are among the last spring migrants to arrive and yet some of the first to leave for Africa. Their feet won't touch the ground until they're back here to breed next May. Enjoy them while they're here. You don't have to go anywhere special; a beer garden will do just fine...
What do you think?
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