{"id":14442,"date":"2024-07-07T23:58:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T22:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14442"},"modified":"2024-07-07T23:59:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T22:59:57","slug":"what-about-the-other-swifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14442","title":{"rendered":"What About The Other Swifts?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What About The Other Swifts? <\/span><\/p>\n

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Many people are very excited by Swift – well, Taylor Swift, to be precise. But what about the other Swifts?<\/p>\n

The poet Ted Hughes wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

A bolas of three or four wire screams <\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jockeying across each other<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On their switchback wheel of death.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

They swat past, hard-fletched<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We seemed to wait an age this year for our Swifts, House Martins and Swallows to return but they made it in the end. Our Swifts have flown from sub- Saharan Africa, a journey of some 3,500 miles each way. They eat, sleep and mate on the wing only pausing to nest – some can go for 10 months without landing anywhere. They are more closely related to Hummingbirds than Swallows and can fly at speeds over 100mph. They typically live for 10 to 20 years and have been known to make it to 30. If you want to help them consider putting up a Swift nest box. They can be purchased or you can make them with some simple carpentry. Alternatively you can now buy Swift bricks which can be incorporated into brick structures, which look very neat and require no maintenance.<\/p>\n

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What About The Other Swifts? Many people are very excited by Swift – well, Taylor Swift, to be precise. But what about the other Swifts? The poet Ted Hughes wrote: A bolas of three or four wire screams Jockeying across each other On their switchback wheel of death. They swat past, hard-fletched We seemed to wait an age this year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-3KW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2944,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=2944","url_meta":{"origin":14442,"position":0},"title":"Silent Spring ?","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The End Game? No thrush sings in the garden now, No blackbird looks to bully the thrush And no swifts shrill above the town, No kestrels hover over the motorways; No cheeky sparrows fly up when a car goes by And no skylarks sing above the barren meadows. The martins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13188,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13188","url_meta":{"origin":14442,"position":1},"title":"NATURE NOTES","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd July 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"NATURE NOTES \u00a0 We are often asked about the effects of artificial lawns on wildlife. The benefits in terms of maintenance etc. are understood and promoted in advertising by plastic grass suppliers. However recently the Royal Horticultural Society published an article summarising the less welcome effects these can have on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Picture3.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Picture3.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Picture3.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8218,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8218","url_meta":{"origin":14442,"position":2},"title":"Commentaries On Nature","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Nature Notes Commentaries on Nature will always be something of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So let's start at the grimmer end of the spectrum. Neonicotinoids are a form of insecticide widely used in the 1990s but when evidence became clear that they were killing bees they were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gabalva-8-20-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":734,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=734","url_meta":{"origin":14442,"position":3},"title":"September Nature Notes.","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st August 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Wander into the countryside and you can easily spot birds and wildflowers. Even if you cannot see the birds you can often hear them calling despite being hidden in trees and undergrowth. But how many mammals will you see? 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