Departure of Swifts is a signing of summer slipping away.
Since our return from the Lakeland Fells, there is a noticeable absence of Swifts in the village. At the end of July the enlarged family groups were racing around the roof tops. But at or around the 10th August they had gone. If this followed the usual pattern the screaming parties would have followed the insect clouds higher into the sky before making the judgement to head south. Presumably this would happen by chance as the followed the southward drift of their food species or, perhaps, they made some instinctive judgement that the weather was set in an advantageous pattern for southerly migration. Now if we see Swifts I assume that they are late brood migrants or perhaps travellers from further north.
