Yesterday evening, around six-thirty pm, just after tea, Ben saw two swifts screaming above the house.

We had seen a few over a local gravel pit at the weekend, but yesterday was the first time we have seen them over the house this season.

May 9th then. Exactly (almost to the minute!) a week later than last year - but then again, they have allegedly been held up by cool weather and unfavourable winds over France for a week or so I hear.

Ben and I sat in the garden for an hour after seeing those first two and we counted 15 (fifteen) more between us in the next hour.

They're back. Thank goodness.

"The lucky ones" - and as is now traditional, I present to you my song for the swifts, which I play each time they come back and each time they leave.

This song MEANS swifts to me... and gives me goosebumps at the start of each May when I play it after I see my first swifts of the year and at the end of July when I watch them leave...

Close your eyes and play the below. And think of the best birds of all. The lucky ones.

Enjoy.