Swallows and Amazons

Or rather Swifts and Anns!

This afternoon I went into our bedroom and thought I heard a scrabbling in the corner. Thinking that there was surely no way that a creature could be in the upstairs room, I cautiously investigated.

To my amazement, there was a swift trapped in a cardboard box in the corner of our room!

Our windows had been open on tilt and turn. The swift - one of 4 pairs "playing" above the house - had obviously been trying to get under the eaves of the house, and had misjudged things. I guess it had flown through the top gap, hit its head, and fallen straight down stunned into the box. Unfortunately it was rather a full carboard box, and the poor thing had been trapped.

I covered the box with a blanket and took it outside. I then carefully removed the blanket, and each item in the box one thing at a time. Eventually that left it enough room to hop up a bit and fly out.

It flew fine, and was obviously unhurt.

We all stood out the back watching the 4 pairs - and had an impromptu lesson on aerodynamics, identifying birds, nest building techniques and gliding! The birds were fabulous to watch - totally amazing the speeds that they can reach, and the way that they swooped down, then up so high to ride the thermals.

I then washed my hair - and gave myself an excuse to sit out in the sunshine as I wanted to let it dry naturally (ahem!). I got myself settled, and watched the bird show.

A swift then kindly showed their appreciation for my rescue by, erm, "depositing" smack bang in the middle of my bare shoulders!

Talk about stunned!

By the way, the estate agent rang late yesterday afternoon to say that they have a buyer for the house! Not at the full price, but not at the lowest end of the scale that they mentioned either.

Please pray that we can find a solicitor, and get this all sorted quickly, easily and with as little cost as possible.