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Birding in July 2011

As our eyes become attuned to the natural word, so the way we look at it starts to change. You find yourself thrilling to things you never found thrilling before. You start by watching and looking out for common birds, and then you begin to notice unusual birds. Just recently one of our readers e-mailed to report that she and her family may have gone mad as they were certain that they had seen a family of ravens in their garden.

They had suspected for a while that it was a pair or maybe a couple of crows with sore throats! Later there was a lot of noise that didn't quite sound right for crows. When they looked out of the window, four huge black birds comparable in size to a buzzard took off from the nearest tree and proceeded to pull their compost heap apart. Then they flew off across a flock of sheep terrifying the life out of them!

Of interest the Raven is our largest crow which utters more croaks than caws. For watchers the head projects further forward than on the Crow or Rook, and both the wings and tail are longer, the wings being narrow-ended and often backswept; the tail is obviously wedge-shaped. The beats are slow, but they are adept at aerial manoeuvres such as rolls and tumbles (unlike Crow). Often flies very high and will soar, which Crows and Rooks tend not to do. They fly mostly in pairs or small flocks.

It's always a pleasure to see a good bird, but it's a lot better to see a lot of good birds particularly when you come on them by chance. This happened to Julie and myself as we turned down our local lane and the vista opened up with a dramatic flourish. Just a field of rape, the yellow gone, the seeds ripening and soon to be harvested to give up their oil. But above it swifts.

Swifts in a high-speed, zooming, jinking crowd, densely packed and very busy. It was clear that we and they had stumbled across a food source of slightly freakish excellence, and they had gathered together to exploit it with high-speed dedication. We estimated about a hundred, but there was an element of futility even in making the attempt to count. They zigzagged and fluttered often flying side by side and do fizz so, turning on a sixpence. Swifts are the most brilliantly aerial of all birds.

The young birds usually stay in the nest for about five weeks and will emerge around the middle of this month they will fly and fly and fly feeding, sleeping, and at the end mating on the wing; it will be two years before they perch again. They are then miraculous birds; how much more miraculous it was to see so many of them all at once. It wasn't just a hundred times better it was just sheer awe and gave us both immense pleasure.

D.H.