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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Stephen Moss

Birdwatch: the invincible swift, effortless master of the air

A swift in flight
The common swift: like so many of our migrant birds, its numbers are in steady decline. Photograph: gallinago_media/Getty Images/iStockphoto

May Day dawns cold and breezy, with sullen grey clouds promising rain. Hope seems very far away. But then, a distant dark streak scythes through the skies over the Avalon Marshes, stiff-winged, direct and determined. A single swift, my first of the year.

As I do every spring, I silently recite the words of the poet Ted Hughes: “They’ve made it again, which means the globe’s still working … ”

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