{"id":15856,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15856"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:54:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:54:48","slug":"swallow-staycation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/05\/04\/swallow-staycation\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallow staycation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Record numbers of our most celebrated migrant bird never left British shores this winter<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Most British swallows overwinter in South Africa, making the perilous journey across the Sahara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The return of swallows to our islands from their African wintering grounds is a sure sign that spring has well and truly sprung. And yet it seems that some never even left.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This winter has seen an unprecedented spike in swallow sightings submitted to BirdTrack, a citizen-science database operated by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). By the end of February, 95 sightings had been registered in the southern half of the UK and in Ireland. The clustering of records suggests a total of 12 birds. \u201cTo suggest that our winters would be warm enough for swallows to survive<\/span> would have been unthinkable a few decades ago,\u201d said BTO director of science James Pearce-Higgins. \u201cBut the evidence that our climate is changing is building year by year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
BTO media manager Paul Stancliffe is the co-author of Collins BTO Guide to British Birds.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

According to the BTO\u2019s Paul Stancliffe, the first record of swallows surviving a British winter \u2013a single bird in Cornwall and a small group in South Wales \u2013 was in 2009. \u201cBefore that, there has been the odd record of birds hanging around in December, but not seen again,\u201d he says. Since 2009, there have been a few more sporadic records, but too few to prove a correlation with milder winters, says Stancliffe. Last year\u2019s late arrival of spring might also have pushed some birds into <\/span>stayingput.\u201cWeknowtherewereswallowss still nesting in late September.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know where these birds spent the summer,\u201d adds Stancliffe. \u201cThey may<\/span> have bred here, or they may be from further north in the Arctic Circle and stopped off on their way south.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Stuart <\/strong>Blackman <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photos: BARN SWALLOW: SIMON LITTEN\/ALAMY; PAUL STANCLIFFE: BTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record numbers of our most celebrated migrant bird never left British shores this winter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"20","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"20","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_20-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_20-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-20-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-20-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-06T07:43:27Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"52d3f876-8768-4818-95c0-04721b33b016","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T11:54:55Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AUtP4dodoSBiVwARyGzOwFg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36.jpg",1571,1391,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36-300x266.jpg",300,266,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36-768x680.jpg",768,680,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36-1024x907.jpg",800,709,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36-1536x1360.jpg",1536,1360,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/c8aacdf2-bb81-4c2c-a9a0-c89e0d0eef36.jpg",1571,1391,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Record numbers of our most celebrated migrant bird never left British shores this winter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15856"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16466,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856\/revisions\/16466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}