Swallows...

I hadn’t planned to go to Selborne today; I just saw the signs, in passing, and decided to take a wander around the Rev Gilbert White’s old haunts. I walked over Selborne Common, and returned via the zig-zag path, which Gilbert made with his brother. Very few birds about… just a few swallows. Gilbert was one of the first naturalists to observe birds at close quarters, rather than shooting and dissecting them. Sometimes his observational skills let him down… as when he made the assumption that swallows ‘hibernated’ over the winter months at the bottom of ponds…

Selborne Church... and all that's left of the famous yew...