The long-distance migrants are back in force

After a slow spring, Stephen Moss's favourite summer visitors have all returned to Somerset - cuckoo, swift, hobby and a surprise redstart

Sometimes birds appear when you least expect them. One evening towards the end of April I was driving my son to football training when the first swifts of the year zoomed past - low as fighter jets, heading due north.

On the way back, I thought I'd stop to see if there were any more. No swifts, but a real surprise, heralded by a flash of orange, as a small brown bird flew into a hawthorn. A lift of the binoculars confirmed my hunch - a female redstart, flicking her russet tail before plunging deep into the foliage, never to be seen again.