Summer visitors cut dashing figures

I NOTICE the dozen swallows and house martins, that sat on the wires above the village street in April and May, have multiplied.

30 or more birds now come and go, twittering and preening, and dashing forth to skim the seaside gardens or the channel, the first fledglings helping with a second brood.

They return with beaks bristling with flies and, in the case of the house martins, can easily be seen and timed between excursions. Arriving at their stucco-moulded nests under the eaves, they disappear inside, deliver the meal to the chicks and are on the wing again a split second later.