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OT First swallow

Ray has just been talking to somebody who lives near the sea (Stretegate for
those who know Devon) and he has just seen a swallow!
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

OT First swallow

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
Ray has just been talking to somebody who lives near the sea
(Stretegate for
those who know Devon) and he has just seen a swallow!
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)
I live by the sea and have been amazed at how many butterflies there
are around, no sight of swallows yet though (or house martins)

OT First swallow

On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 13:12:07 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

Ray has just been talking to somebody who lives near the sea (Stretegate for
those who know Devon) and he has just seen a swallow!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html
Warm spell lets early swallow fly in the face of winter
By Graham Tibbetts
(Filed: 09/02/2004)

The first swallow of the year has been sighted a month earlier than
expected after the unseasonal warm spell.

The traditional harbinger of spring, which typically arrives in March
and April, was seen in Somerset on Saturday after migrating from
southern Spain. A second swallow was seen yesterday on the Isles of
Scilly.

Click to enlarge

Even more surprising has been the appearance along the South Coast of
several house martins, which normally arrive after the swallow.

Ornithologists and conservationists believe it is further evidence of
inexorable climate change.

Swallows have occasionally appeared as early as January but in the
last two years none has arrived before March.

The Somerset sighting, at Dunster near Minehead, beat the previous
county record of Feb 25. One of the earliest sightings for Devon was
Feb 13 in 1897 at Lynmouth.

"Blasted by a cold westerly, just about the last thing we expected was
a swallow hawking insects around the huts at Dunster beach. I doubt
summer is on the way yet, though," said Jonathan White, who saw the
swallow late in the afternoon with his fellow birdwatcher Brian Hill.

The second sighting was made on St Mary's, the largest of the islands
off Cornwall.

Over the weekend six house martins appeared near a hotel at Bembridge
on the Isle of Wight, three at Deal, Kent, one each at Durlston
Country Park and Ballard Down, both Dorset, and a another at
Shoreham-on-Sea, West Sussex.

"The odd swallow has been reported in February before but what must be
one of the earliest multiple arrivals of house martins adds extra
significance to the Somerset bird," said Grahame Madge of the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds.

"Normally it's April before most people see their first swallow or
house martins."

He added: "The mass arrival of birds in early February may be a source
of delight to birdwatchers, but it is another small, potentially
worrying, sign of a warming world."

Migratory birds such as the swallow and house martin traditionally
winter south of the equator in Africa but, with global temperatures
rising, many are now going no further than southern Spain.

It is thought that the weekend's early arrivals came from Spain with
the south westerly wind that brought temperatures of up to 64F (17.9C)
to parts of Britain. Other premature visitors included a yellow
wagtail on the Isle of Sheppey and a number of insects, among them 14
painted ladies at Ballard Down, Dorset, and a striped hawkmoth at
Durlston Country Park, Dorset.

The first birdwatcher to treat with caution the appearance of an early
swallow was Aristotle. More than two thousands years ago he observed
that "One swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day".
Meteorological Office records indicate that while the mean February
temperature from 1961 to 1965 was 37.8F (3.2C), in the last five years
it has risen to 41F (5C).

"We have long been warned that weather extremes would be a feature of
the climate change that is widely accepted as in progress and it
certainly seems to be turning out that way," added Mr Madge.

The British Trust for Ornithology has conducted a survey - Migration
Watch - for the past two years but in neither year recorded a swallow
before March 1. Graham Appleton of the BTO said the return to colder
temperatures could make survival difficult for the newcomers.

"Early arrivals are taking quite a risk," he said. "The benefits of
getting a good territory and starting the breeding season early are
tremendous but in this weather the chance of survival is pretty slim,
with few insects about.

It is usually male swallows that turn up early as, in general, they
travel north before the females." Dr Tim Sparks, who records seasonal
indicators at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Cambridgeshire,
said: "To get this many sightings is amazing. This would appear to be
very unusual."
--

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit;
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad

OT First swallow

Sacha wrote in
. uk:

Ray has just been talking to somebody who lives near the sea
(Stretegate for those who know Devon) and he has just seen a swallow!

I thought I'd seen one about a week ago, but I decided I must have seen
wrong. Maybe I didn't!

Still, frost on the pond this morning. Won't do the frogspawn any good...

Victoria

OT First swallow

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

Ray has just been talking to somebody who lives near the sea (Stretegate for
those who know Devon) and he has just seen a swallow!

Reported on R4 TAAAW - must be true then.....

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

OT First swallow

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
Ray has just been talking to somebody who lives near the sea (Stretegate
for
those who know Devon) and he has just seen a swallow!
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

I'm near Manchester which would be too far north for them this early I
expect although we have literally hundreds of house martins every year
nesting on the new houses.

But I do think I saw my first bat ever enter my bat box at the weekend and I
thought they would still be hibernating...
--
Martin & Anna Sykes
( Remove x's when replying )
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~sykesm

OT First swallow