Last Friday 8 Nov, early afternoon, I pulled into the carpark at Holt Oval and noticed five small dark objects on the bitumen. At first I took them to be chunks of rubber
left in the wake of some mind-blown, tyre blowing burnout aficionado’s questionable set of skills. As I drew closer I saw they were Welcome Swallows, huddled down on the black-top of the car park. The day had been reasonably mild until light showers around
noon brought a drop in temperature, so perhaps the birds were luxuriating in the accumulated warmth of the bitumen.
I nosed into the curb to eat sandwiches and noticed more swallows, like about 200 more, flying around above the oval. Welcome Swallows can be ubiquitous little birds at
times but, when you see a couple of hundred soaring, gliding, swooping and undulating some twenty-five metres from where you sit, the mundane becomes an uplifting experience. Also, I wonder about their prey, minuscule insects aloft in chill, showery conditions
seems to speak volumes for their resilience and adaptability.
John Layton
Holt.
