Nature Study: Round the Countryside
Eric Parker: 3: Autumn Migrants
Today Mr. Eric Parker, Editor-in-Chief of The Field, is to give the second of his fortnightly talks to schools in the autumn programme. Most of you know that certain birds stay in this country all the year round, whilst others come and go at various seasons. Redwings and fieldfares, for instance, come from farther north in the autumn to winter here in a warmer climate. Have you ever seen them? Did you ever note the first autumn day on which you did?
Martins and swallows, on the contrary, have spent the late spring and summer here and migrate in the autumn to Mediterranean countries where it is warmer still. So you have birds changing their places of stay for the sake of climate, and to get what suits them, they will struggle on in exhausting flights across land and sea.
Some of you may have noticed a few-martins and swallows reappearing on mild mornings about a month after apparently all have gone. Because of this unexpected reappearance the great naturalist, Gilbert White, of Selborne, surmised that they had been awakened from sleep and thought it not unreasonable to suppose that a certain number of swallows and martins, unlike the majority, spend the winter here in a state of torpor.

Scottish National 285.7 m,
Details will be found on page 44.