Читать книгу The Times A Year in Nature Notes - Derwent May - Страница 87

SUMMER VISITORS ARE now beginning to flood into Britain. More chiffchaffs are singing in the treetops, and coming down to the sallow bushes for the insects that fly around the catkins. Wheatears have been seen on the South Downs, feeding among the sheep on the cropped grass, and these lively blue-grey and white birds will soon be heading further north for the moors. Sand martins are wheeling over lakes and rivers, and a few house martins and swallows, which belong to the same family of small fork-tailed birds, have been seen in similar places. They are rebuilding their strength with insect food after their journey. The sand martins will soon head for the quarries where they nest in holes, the swallows will go back to farmyard barns, and the house martins to the buildings where they make their mud nests under the eaves. Ospreys, which are large, white fish-eating hawks, are on their way to the Scottish lochs.