Birds trekking south herald autumn

IT BROUGHT a lump to my throat ...” my friend, a very expert and usually unsentimental bird watcher told me, as he recounted seeing swallows heading out over the sea at the start of their long trek to South Africa.

He and his wife were sitting on the beach at St Helen’s Bay, Co Wexford, soaking up the last September sun (they got burnt) when they noticed fat swallows arriving singly or in pairs and flying back and forth over the sheltered waters until a half dozen or so assembled.

Then, as one, “chattering and flying so close to one another you’d swear they were talking,” they set off towards the Tuskar Rock lighthouse, flying low at first, then climbing steadily, up and up, until at last they were so high that they were lost even to the view of my friend’s powerful Zeiss binoculars.