Durham Bird Club at 50

The county avifauna, The Birds of Durham (Bowey and Newsome, 2012) records that “A public meeting in late 1974 at Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery to discuss bird watching and recording was well-attended. This was followed on 8 January 1975 by another meeting and enrolment for membership of the Durham Bird Club began shortly afterwards.”

We shall be organising various projects and events during the year to commemorate this special anniversary. These include a "Bird of the Week" feature, appearing below.

Bird of the Week - Week 36

Swallow – Gathering for the journey, a sign of summer’s waning

(Photo by Mark Harper)

Few birds lift the spirits quite like a Swallow. Their sleek, dark wings, long tail-streamers and red throats flash as they skim low over fields, rivers and lakes, twisting with ease as they snatch insects from the air. They’ve been part of the soundtrack of our summer for centuries – cheerful twittering overhead, way up high, or right down at ground level.

By early September, breeding is largely done. The mud-cup nests tucked under barn eaves and in farm buildings are quieter now, with the last broods fledging. Instead, Swallows have been gathering in flocks on wires, hedgerows and reedbeds, building strength and fat reserves for the long migration south since late July. Some have departed already but peak movements are likely to be in the coming two weeks, when they’ll be heading, in large numbers, to southern Africa – a journey of thousands of miles that still seems astonishing, if ever you pause to think about it.

In County Durham, they remain a widespread breeder, with large concentrations especially in farmland and wetlands where insects are abundant. Those evening spectacles of dozens, even hundreds, sweeping and circling together are one of the great pleasures of late summer birding.

Have you noticed Swallows gathering in numbers yet – maybe lining the wires near you, or flocking over your local wetland before roost?

More information on Swallows

E-mail: admin@durhambirdclub.org.uk

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