Barn swallow – photo by Elsemargriet free on Pixabay.com
On a mild October morning of blue skies and fluffy white clouds, I drive to Hale for a walk, but not to the estuary; today, I choose the Town Lane, footpath, Higher Road, Carr Lane loop, hoping to see the kingfisher that frequents Ramsbrook. I am out of luck, but the sweet unmistakeable song of a Cetti’s warbler is more than reward enough.
Town Lane is busy with traffic, being the main route into Hale Village and beyond. Lorries, buses, cars, cyclists – all go zooming past as I walk along the pavement, occasionally nipping across to the pavement-less hedgerow side to peer at the pools and try to work out what ducks and waders are about. As it is low tide on the estuary, “Not much” is the answer, so I keep on going, spending a moment looking along the brook, then past the houses and towards the footpath. Two late swallows zip over the rooftops, surprising me. We’re a third of the way through October, so I would expect them to be on their way home now at the very least, if not already arrived back in South Africa.
Having just watched a discussion between naturalists Tim Dee and Jon Carter on swallow migration, these birds’ journeys and wintering grounds are more ‘real’ to me now. Between 30 and 50 million pairs of swallows breed in Europe. Dee explains that their twice-yearly commute takes them across the Sahara, where many perish, especially on the return leg when the desert is hotter and less green than on the outward leg. Swallows, unlike many small birds, migrate during the day, stopping to feed en route, and presumably navigating by the sun and obvious landmarks. Other birds prefer to migrate at night, when the risk of predation is lower, and so they need to feed up before they leave, as there will be no re-fuelling on the way. They use the stars to navigate by, as well as the Earth’s magnetic fields. Feral pigeons, I recall, also use their sense of smell. Truly, birds are amazing creatures and their feathered bodies hold mysteries that we still have not fathomed.
Sunlight and shadows along the footpath
Anyway, back to the walk: I’ve seen bullfinch in the trees along the footpath in the past, but today it is long-tailed tits, which ‘seep’ constantly as they flit from branch to branch, maintaining contact with the others in the group. Such gorgeous little birds – ‘flying lollipops’, as some people call them, due to their round pink, white and black bodies and long black and white tails. I stand a while to watch them and then continue, turning right with the path to walk alongside a long hawthorn hedge, thick with deep red berries, then emerge onto Higher Road.
There’s an abandoned house after the well-stocked farm shop, and more tit species frequent its trees – I see coal and blue tits, and hear great tits, as I take a few minutes to wait and see what else appears. A white pony eyes my bag – but unfortunately for it I have just eaten my delicious, organic, allotment-grown apple.
The abandoned house on Higher Road
We will leave me standing here, halfway through my walk, disappointed pony in the field beyond, and return in the next post.