YOU can only imagine the joy that this image brings to swift supremo Mark Smyth – the first bird back and resting snugly in the nest box at his Antrim home.
It arrived last Wednesday – April 22 – and it means that the long wait for this incredible, almost improbable bird is over. And if winter is too long for us all, it’s even longer for Mark who devotes every waking moment to trying to save and protect this endangered bird, the gabhlán gaoithe. He counts down the days until their return – they are abroad three-quarters of the year – and prays that they’ll arrive safely to the boxes they nested in last year.
Not that he’s idle in winter when the swifts are in southern Africa. In fact it just gives him time to make sure their homes are spic and span.
When Dúlra saw the picture of the first one home, he rushed to get his swift caller out of cold storage. This year will be the third one that their screeches will be blasted into the Belfast sky as he tries to lure them into nesting in the three specially designed boxes that Mark put up on Dúlra’s home.
It hasn’t happened yet – but with a new mini-speaker, he’s more confident this year than he’s ever been. The speaker can fit in the palm of your hand – but it’s so powerful that it could be used in the Falls Park for the final night of the Féile!
Mark is the preeminent expert in swifts, and they’ve been nesting at his house for 20 years. That first bird back last Wednesday was 13 days earlier than last year – and so it was an exception. “Don’t play the calls until the second week of May,” he told Dúlra.
And so the neighbours got a reprieve from that incessant screeching – but just for another fortnight.
One family in the St James’ area contacted Dúlra in the hope they too could attract swifts to their house. A neighbour in the street where swifts had been nesting last year got new gutters – and the crevice they had been nesting in disappeared. The Andersonstown News bought a swift nest box for them – now they just need a good pair of ladders! But at least they've got another fortnight to put it up.
* Dúlra took a trip down to the Giant’s Park near the docks this week in the hope the breeding lapwings had returned. But it was not to be.
As Dúlra reported in recent years, Ireland’s national bird had decided to nest on waste ground right in front of the massive Belfast Harbour Film Studios.
No place for lapwings
Lapwings are in as much danger as the swift as a breeding bird – and for the same reason – they can’t find a safe place to nest. These big, beautiful waders simply lay their eggs on the ground, something they used to do in all the fields around Belfast. Giant’s Park may have been their last surviving nesting spot in the city, but no one seemed to care.
Dúlra tried to tell the relevant authorities about it – and at one stage notices were put up warning people not to enter as they would disturb breeding birds.
It seems, however, that the area is being prepared for development – there are new piles of gravel there. And Belfast’s last breeding lapwings have vanished.
But there’s better news about another exotic bird – the hoopoe, húpú in Irish. It’s been reported this spring in several places in the far south of Ireland – and one even made its way to Banbridge.
The hoopoe
It seems that our warmer summers are enticing it to make the trip across from France – and it obviously likes what it finds here. And it’s not a matter of keeping an eye out for it – with a giant Mohican, it’s hard to miss!
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
