In April, I sky-scan.  Eyes up, waiting. And then I see her, the first swallow of the year, and I can breathe again.  The swallows are back.

And the thrill of the unmistakable shrill screech of the swifts! They are the last to arrive back, in May, and the first to leave.

Once you can easily identify the swifts, martins and swallows performing their joyful dance in the sky above you, the summer is all the richer.  Here’s a poster I drew covering the basics (there’s a card available of this drawing here):