A wealth of avian beauty and interest can be found right here on our doorstep, says Thomas Purvis (Year 12)
T o observe a swift in an effortlessly acrobatic display of twists and turns is a supremely joyous sight. One is immediately transported from the monotonous slog of everyday existence into a world beyond time’s spell, making one’s troubles but a memory. On witnessing these charming birds – as the pastor Laurens Sargent so aptly wrote – ‘wheeling tirelessly on their long scythe-shaped pinions, high in the air, with many a wild screech’, one cannot help but feel that they take a pleasure in their existence beyond the necessity of survival. It is difficult not to be left in awe by these enchanting birds, capable, remarkably, of spending intervals of up to ten months in continuous flight, even sleeping on the wing. Indeed, it was the swift’s propensity to remain on the wing that led the Greeks of old to term them apous (footless). The majority of British birds possess a rather subtle beauty, less obviously impressive than many of their foreign counterparts Watching a swift can be a truly uplifting experience, yet this bird is no ornithologist’s holy grail, drawing fren- zied gaggles of twitchers. Swifts are, in fact, decidedly common birds and can often be seen in and around the College between the months of May and August. The swift is not even strikingly attractive; the large, beady eyes give the bird a somewhat grumpy appearance and the plum- age is sooty-black all over, save the little white bib, which makes it seem as if it is curry night at the local pub and that our swift is determined to arrive before the swallows eat all the naans. A bird need not be especially rare or overtly attractive for one to take great pleasure in observing it. Indeed, the ma-
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THE ALLEYNIAN 712
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