Natural Selection

After I’d dropped Jane off at work and was heading to a meeting in North Blackpool news came through of a ‘reported’ Swallow not too far away. December or not most people know what a Swallow looks like so I decided to stop and have a brief search for it.

The bird club WhatsApp said it was on the Prom between Norbreck and Bispham. I parked equidistant between the Norbreck Castle and the end of the Illuminations at Red Bank Road and wandered along the Promenade with no sign.

Dodgy phone shots but you can see it’s a Swallow just about

Just as I was about to give up I picked up the bird going away from me north. It was then reasonably easy to relocate as it came back and forth hawking insects. It was a mild if foggy morning so presumably it was finding insects to feed on.

This is the first Swallow I’ve ever seen in Britain in December. It’s obviously partly down to climate change that they are more frequent this far into the winter, so it was a strange mixture of emotions watching it so late in the year so far north.