Out of a near cloudless sky comes a low, hornet-like drone, announcing the arrival of a flyer many times bigger than any of the neighbourhood birds. It is a localised summer regular and, over decades, I have learned to narrow down this particular sound to two similar species.
More than a century ago, a previous country diarist watched and listened as I do. The Cheshire naturalist TA Coward observed the first flying machines and their impact on birds. By the time he came to write his column in 1919, he noted: “A few years ago, the appearance of an aeroplane caused great consternation among these lesser flyers; rooks, pigeons, starlings, partridges and others scattered and took cover, long before our less keen eyes had spotted the approaching machine. Now they are indifferent.”
