Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) remarked: "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy." This is very true and I feel very sorry for them at the moment. They have traveled all the way up from South Africa and have landed with warm weather last week and then we have had this cold snap over the Bank holiday which means there will not have been as many insects (their food source) flying around. They were flying around in abundance last week and checking on their old nests in my Mum's sheep shed. It is a nice sight to see. I hope the weather picks up again for them and us. It has always baffled me how the weather seems to know when it is a Bank Holiday.
On Sunday over the Bank Holiday weekend I heard my first Cuckoo who also travel up from Central and possibly Southern Africa. Cuckoos are crafty and use another bird to bring up their young, by replacing one of the hosts eggs with one of its own. There are plenty of host species such as Reed Warbler. They are also the first migrant species to leave the UK for they have no young to bring up - their host does it.
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