City birds

Making space for house martins and swifts

Spain.

The day’s late golden rays dance on the vinyard leaves. The air is filled with wheeling, crying house martins, devouring the insects that float lazily in the warm evening air.

As the sun sinks, the house martins tuck themselves away in nests in the eaves of the house. The bats take over for the night shift, arrowing beneath the darkening sky with m…