They say that a swallow does not bring Spring, but what happens when even that is lost…

The drought and the drought are not about a dystopian future but the harsh reality of today.

The fact that in Crete we do not have the desired rainfall seems to drive away even the migratory birds earlier than any other year.

The well-known biologist-ornithologist, scientist of the Museum of Natural History of Crete, Michalis Dretakis, describes in Cretalive a situation that does not give rise to hope for tomorrow, but only anxiety about what will happen next.

According to what he observes, without the official records having been made yet, birds have already left Crete, such as most swallows, starlings and bee-eaters. As he explains to Cretalive, the reason is the prevailing situation, due to the lack of rain, that is, the birds that breed on our island, could not stand it and did not stay here for their second birth.

Let’s take the swallows for example: the second brood takes place, on average, in June-July and then they leave the island in September. But, given that they already seem to have abandoned us, the high temperatures and lack of humidity probably led the second birth to failure. Mr. Dretakis reports that, mainly in the lowlands, we see a few swallows now, they seem to have moved to the mountains, where the prevailing conditions are better.

As for the bee-eaters, a typical species that makes colonies in Mesara, their absence is also noticeable. The problem is also found in other birds, such as finches, which had a failure in their births and stopped prematurely this year.

The MFIK scientist explains that the increased temperature, the lack of rain, the reduced humidity, does not allow the birds to find food and water and this affects their reproductive potential. These are birds that migrate in autumn anyway, but this year this migration takes place earlier. According to him, 2024 is probably the most difficult year, accurate, however, we will have a picture after September when the relevant records will be made. This year, by all accounts, we have fewer births and a steadily increased number of immature individuals who struggle to… manage their first days of life.

Let’s say that we see many dead and weak young people this year due to starvation. The picture is as follows: their parents did not find enough food to offer their young because of the drought… We remind you that in Crete we have also seen distressed birds desperately looking for some water in other years.

This year, the corresponding visits of vultures to MFIK are a very frequent phenomenon.

The picture is similarly unpleasant for the storks, where we saw nest abandonment, the parents could not find food to provide to their young, resulting in them dying of starvation…

It is estimated that there are two facts: either the birds started migrating much earlier or they completely avoided Crete due to drought. In other words, they came to the island, immediately realized what… was waiting for them and left for other areas in the hope that they would have better conditions.

For the sake of history, let’s say that swallows, bee-eaters, and starlings are birds that winter in Africa, they are summer visitors to our country, and some of them also breed in Crete. In autumn they return to their base again.

Mr. Dretakis has found that swallows have specific places in Heraklion, where they choose to roost. This year, therefore, he sees that these places are left without patrons…

Other birds that seem to have left Crete earlier are the rock swallows and black-throated grebes.

Let us explain that these are insectivorous birds, they are completely dependent on the number of insects and when it decreases, due to drought, then, naturally, they are affected.

“Anombria is a big issue that affects humans and nature, in general“, says Mr. Dretakis.

As he says, if we have many dry years like this year, we will have fewer birds every year, they will breed unsuccessfully and their population will shrink.

In the future, it is possible that we may even have species that were previously out of danger disappear!

Mr. Dretakis studies the forecasting models of the weather and shows that in the next period we will have rains, however, this is not at all certain. We will have a dip in temperature as summer comes to an end but what the weather has in store is still a surprise to us all.