Before the holiday a call came in to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel about a swallow that got trapped in a network of cords close to the third floor of the Susanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv facing a window of Shalom Hanoch’s apartment.
A representative of the Society immediately went to the site of the occurrence, and Hanoch helped as much as he could, while showing resourcefulness and creativity when he fastened a special knife to a broom handle. With great care, while leaning on the window sill, the representative of the Society began to cut and to unravel the cords, until he succeeded in releasing the bird, which flew away to its freedom.
The Common Swift (Apus apus) is a protected species of bird with a long life span (more than 20 years), which belongs to the Swift family. The swift spends most of its life in flight, and lands in order to lay eggs and to take care of its young. It is faithful to its mate and even returns each year to the same nesting place. Its long and slender wings assist it in easily hunting bugs and spiders, and in severe weather conditions it goes into a kind of hibernation. The swift arrives in Israel in the middle of February and leaves at the beginning of June, and is common in urban settings in which it uses holes in walls and open spaces under eaves.
