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Migration 1896
C.J.Cornish, wrote the following in his book 'The Naturalist on the Thames', published in 1902.
"On September 16, 1896, after a period of very stormy wet weather, I saw a great migration of swallows down the Thames. It was a dark, dripping evening, and the thick osier bed on Chiswick Eyot was covered with wet leaf.
Between five and six o'clock immense flights of swallows and martins suddenly appeared above the eyot, arriving, not in hundreds, but in thousands and tens of thousands. The air was thick with them, and their numbers increased from minute to minute.
Part drifted above, in clouds, twisting round like soot in a smoke-wreath. Thousands kept sweeping just over the tops of the willows, skimming so thickly that the sky-line was almost blotted out for the height of from three to four feet.
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Swallows |
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Martins |
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Soon the high-flying crowds of birds drew down, and swept for a few minutes low over the willows, from end to end of the eyot. Then by a common impulse the whole mass settled down from end to end of the island, upon the osiers. Those in the centre of the eyot were black with swallows - like the black blight on beans.
By watching the river carefully for many years I have noticed that it is a regular migration route for several species besides swallows. Sand-martins, when beginning the migration, travel down the Thames in small flocks, and sleep each night in different osier beds."
The passage above shows the dependence of our wildlife on the riverbank environment. Where are the osier beds now?
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Introduction
Sky above
