Michael - Thursday
Last month I read an essay in the New York Times Magazine
about swifts. It’s called The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down and it links to our current difficulties
in surprising ways. The author, Helen Macdonald who wrote H is for Hawk, writes a very personal
piece about these strange birds and it’s definitely worth a read.
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| The elegant African Palm swift. Often seen over our bungalow at Olifants  |
Swifts are birds that spend their lives in the air on the
wing. They feed on flying insects, sleep in the air – half the brain at a time –
and come down only to build their nests and breed. They don’t perch, they don’t
really interact with the ground at all.
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| The Alpine swift makes its way from Europe to South Africa with the seasons. You usually see them here on their own. |
They may fly huge distances or just recycle a large area,
but they may fly more than 100,000 miles in a lifetime. They may be in flocks
or alone.
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| Barn swallows roosting. Never swifts... |
Swifts can be confused with swallows, but they aren’t
related. Swifts and swallows are examples of parallel evolution. Apparently, this
is the best design if you intend to fish food only from the sky. Actually,
they are quite easy to tell apart because swallows flap their wings rapidly and
are often seen perching in trees. They love telephone lines and form neatly
packed lines. Swifts float above it all, wasting as little energy as possible
on wing motion. They can rotate their wings from the base allowing efficient
flying at height. This ability is shared only with hummingbirds (which are supposed
to be their closest relatives).
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| Chimney swift swarm |
They seem able to test the weather and the winds with intricate
flying, rising and falling – so-called vesper flights. Presumably they use this
information in their flying and hunting for food. It’s hardly surprising that
they migrate large distances. Why not? You’re flying anyway. So they follow
their food north and south with the seasons.
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| Little swift nests in South Africa |
As for the world, they stay above it, remote, aloof. Only returning to it to breed.
