Over the last few days, and when the weather has allowed I have been sitting in my garden enjoying the sun. Some days, because we live quite close to the sea I could hear the waves rolling up the sandy beach. I could hear the Cuckoo busy calling for his mate in the nearby woods on the hillside, and I could hear the wood pigeons cooing their comforting calls to each other. All wonderful springtime and summer sounds with which I have become familiar, but on this occasion there was something missing!

For days and days at a subliminal level I have been conscious that something was missing, the familiar noise which was conspicuous by its absence. Then today I had to attend a meeting in Nailsea which is about 15 miles from where I live. To save time I drove most of the way there on the motorway, but when the meeting was over and I have no more pressure upon me, I decided to drive back through the countryside.

On the way back I stopped by one of the many wide dikes here in the West Country to answer a phone call, and while I was far I saw what I had been missing at home the past few days. Swallows and house martins. I saw a few of them bitterly picking up insects above the dike, but not that many! Usually, their would be thousands of them, all screaming and competing as swallows and house martins do. But on this occasion there were just three of them, how sad.

Now I was aware of what I was missing I started to look for them in vain on my journey back home, but did not see any more at all. When I returned home I sat in my garden and eight a sandwich for my lunch, and at the same time searched the skies for my missing friends, but they weren’t there any more.

I well remember seeing a few return in early spring, but since then non! So what has happened, has been a swallow plague? Or have they found somewhere better to migrate to? I would love to know where they have gone, and at the same time just hope they will be back again next year because they are such lovely little creatures.