Our summer visitors have arrived. Our Scottish Spring days resound with the beautiful singing of birds. Our year round birds such as the Blackbird, Robin and Blue Tit are joined by birds which have travelled many miles to nest in Scotland.

There is no doubt our weather can be atrocious but this soggy weather encourages an abundance of insect life which provides plenty of food for these, mostly insectivorous birds, to feed their young. Anyone who has been camping in Scotland during the summer knows that there are lots of midges out there for the catching. Our long summer days also allow the birds more daylight hours to find food for nestlings than they would have nearer the equator. Less competition for nesting sites and fewer predators make Scotland a much preferable place to bring up the precious babies.

In Glasgow we have already seen the arrival of the warblers, a group of little brown jobs including the Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Grasshopper Warblers. These birds are extremely similar in appearance but they are easily identified by their songs, which differ greatly between species. The warblers like woodland, shrubbery or tall vegetation for nesting. Their attractive song can be heard in Pollok Country Park, Hogganfield LNR and Hurlethill to name a few. Many of these little birds cross the Sahara Desert to get here.

The Barn Swallows can be spotted around the Old Stable Courtyard at Pollok Country Park. Their aerial acrobatics are spectacular to watch as they fly in and out of the spaces around the courtyard, locating nest sites and then building up their cup nests with mud from the river. Later they will be busy feeding their hungry fledglings. The young, on fledging, will quickly learn to fly like their graceful parents and by around September will be heading back to Africa to over winter.

The Sandmartins are already here at Pollok Country Park and nesting in the vertical sand banks of the White Cart River after returning from tropical West Africa.

One of the most spectacular of the summer visitors must be the Swifts which arrive around May from South Africa. They resemble a screaming flock of boomerangs as they speed through the air. They are so at home in the air that they feed, drink mate and sleep on the wing, only landing to nest.

The distance covered by summer migrants is astounding. A Common Swift has been recorded by scientists covering more than 3,100 miles in just five days. These migratory birds fly over many countries on their passage and Birdlife International (B.L.I) states that ‘more that 90% of migratory birds are poorly protected on their marathon’. B.L.I’S Flyways Programme aims to protect areas important for these birds and reduce threats such as habitat destruction, illegal hunting, poisoning and pollution.

It is not enough to only protect their breeding sites but we can still do our bit by making sure our gardens are not too tidy, leaving bramble and scrubby areas for nesting birds. Avoiding chemicals on our garden will reduce the poisoning in the food chain and never cutting foliage or trees down after March 31. Get in touch with Concern for Swifts if you would like to help these visitors or join the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (S.O.C) the network of volunteers across Scotland who gathering vital, impartial information about Scotland’s wild birds. The next time you see a swallow chattering on a wire or swooping low to catch a midge, think of the incredible journey that has brought it to Scotland.

Fiona Greenlees

Countryside Ranger for Glasgow City Council

Pollok Country Park