Categories: uncategorized
Tags: london, naturalhistory
Date: 15 May 2006 21:19:54
They usually arrive in the 2nd week of May - I've never known them turn up later than the 14th of May. I might have seen a few flying round Senate House in Malet Street on the evening of the 12th. But too far away for me to see clearly.
Though there were some jackdaws I hadn't previously noticed. In the bit of Bloomsbury I work in we get pigeons (of course) with crows and starlings not uncommon. Now and again magpies, woodpigeons, blackbirds, pied wagtails. I've seen mallards, herring gulls and blackheaded gulls in flight, but not landing. All very urban. But I've not seen a jackdaw there before.
But anyway. Walking to church on Sunday morning, 14th May, and there they were!. Bang on schedule. Flying in and out of rooves of houses, hawking low over the vicarage garden, flying round the spire. In the evening service I could hear them screaming past the windows.
One swallow doesn't make a summer, but one swift does. Spring was late starting but now its back on schedule.
The three biological events I wait for at this time of year all happened on time - the mining bees in the churchyard were flying on Easter morning, the swifts were back in town for the 14th of May and the trees are just about fully back in leaf. The canopy has closed. The London planes (the main street tree in town) have got a full covering of soft hairy leaves, still not fully grown but enough to cast almost full shade, and the limes (most common street tree in South East London) are bursting with soft pale green leaves still sweet enough to eat. As always nearly all the sycamores have been in full leaf for some weeks now. The South London skyline is a soft green shade and once again Brockley and Forest Hill look like Tuscan hills. From a safe distance. When the sun is shining. If you've been drinking and are in a good mood.
Magnolias and cherries long out of flower, but the lilacs are still in bloom and the streets smell like spring. The horse chestnuts have come out, the hawthorns are in bloom, and the elders are about to move to fruiting. The willows catkins have gone and the oaks are coming out - and the huge evergreen oak in the churchyard has a full flush of yellowish-green new leaves and flower buds covering over last year's dark leathery spiky foliage.
Summer's come at last. A pity we have to put up with all that horrid hot weather and nasty sunshine if we want to enjoy it. But at least there will be some shade in the streets.
I like trees :)