Most recent evenings there have been a few swifts darting around – four or five, sometimes six. Late afternoon today there were 14! It’s around a week early for young birds to have fledged, but it very much looked as though that was what it was – in which case it’s extremely encouraging.
They are one of my favourite birds – the decaying “Stonesfield slate” roof of my mother’s house was home to several pairs every year, and for me they are the essence of long summer evenings.