First swallows ??

[king 11,984]

2 hours ago, Greb147 said:

Stepped out the house to empty the dog and a sparrowhawk makes a low pass, the early bird catches the bird.

Did all them years you spent building up your lightening speed on the pads and heavy bag allow you to throw the jab with such speed.

That you managed to hit the sparrowhawk off his flight path from 30ft away with the huge amount of wind blast generated by your jab.

[Greb147 6,809]

7 minutes ago, king said:

Did all them years you spent building up your lightening speed on the pads and heavy bag allow you to throw the jab with such speed.

That you managed to hit the sparrowhawk off his flight path from 30ft away with the huge amount of wind blast generated by your jab.

No I just shot the cnut. 

[king 11,984]

1 minute ago, Greb147 said:

No I just shot the cnut. 

That's fair enough mate..hey throwing a high power jab with cold muscles is just asking for trouble

[Greb147 6,809]

1 minute ago, king said:

That's fair enough mate..hey throwing a high power jab with cold muscles is just asking for trouble

I don't usually shoot them but I mistakenly thought it was a wally some distance away on a paraglider. 

[king 11,984]

1 minute ago, Greb147 said:

I don't usually shoot them but I mistakenly thought it was a wally some distance away on a paraglider. 

Do you wish your fear wasn't stopping you from having a go greb...

[Greb147 6,809]

4 minutes ago, king said:

Do you wish your fear wasn't stopping you from having a go greb...

Not at all, I couldn't prise the two books from underneath it's wings, think it was on a maiden flight. 

[Greyman 29,015]

Swallows are nesting in one of the sheds in work and I’ve seen the first swifts in the last week or so as well, just no fecking summer

[king 11,984]

They only stayed a few days by the back door..they have moved into the garage now and have shit everywhere  

[Greb147 6,809]

14 minutes ago, king said:

They only stayed a few days by the back door..they have moved into the garage now and have shit everywhere  

In-laws are a right pain aren't they. 

[king 11,984]

2 hours ago, Greb147 said:

In-laws are a right pain aren't they. 

That's why we don't bother with them mate

[Greyman 29,015]

And as the shite summer draws to an end the swallows are gathering in big numbers ready to leave now  

[pesky1972 5,352]

Don’t look forward to seeing them getting ready to leave or summer coming to an end, but have seen some spectacular flocks of swallows and martins in recent years. Watched a sparrowhawk flying over one a few years back. Must have been thousands of birds.

[mole trapper 1,694]

The last two days we've had fifty plus on the wires crossing our land. Remember vividly when we still had the last farm in west Wales watching them migrate all day long while we were laying a hedge.

[dytkos 17,821]

Haven't seen as many as last year

Cheers, D.

[Ken's Deputy 4,460]

For as long as I've known, there was barely room for all their nests, around here.

About now, there'd be masses of them ~ triple figures ~ weighing the power lines down, outside my window.

Then, about two or three years back Nothing! Lucky if two or three of them arrived. Never had a single nesting attempt since. Barely see a summers swallow, even now. Completely baffled me.

Now, I'm no expert on bird migration. I've no idea if Welsh swallows follow the exact same flight path as swallows from Kent. But, I spoke to a bloke who Is an expert. And he said something very much to the effect of;

'Oh. Yes. There was a freak weather effect, that year, over the ocean.' And explained how it was something like this wind had blown them all back the way they'd been coming from. Then sucked them all out to sea again and physically forced them down into the ocean! Thousands of birds lost. Just like that

Or something very much like that. Don't quote me on the details. But, cataclysmic, freak weather event. Maybe a side effect of one of these hurricanes?

And it wiped out 'my' swallows.