On April 23rd, the Rhine-Main area was flooded by sunlight and bathed in 20°C warm air. Always worried to release her patients under optimal conditions only, Dr. Christiane Haupt had doubts if this one day of perfect spring weather would be sufficient. But when clinic staff member Kirsten K. sent her a text message saying thath some 30-50 swifts were circling over Frankfurt's Rebstockgelände, Dr. Haupt decided that it's time to release the first wintered patients, namely the adult swifts

Raymond from Leipzig,

Cato from St. Gallen (Switzerland),

Ninian from Gießen,

Martinet from Ohrdruf in Thuringa, and

Dante from Würzburg.

Dante suffered extremely from being separated from Marek. The swifts arrived in the clinic together and shared a "room", but Marek was transferred to Fuerteventura, where he took off on January 15th. For almost two weeks, Dante did not allow any other swift in his proximity, until he could be teamed up with juvenile Fabien. Not only did Dante fly countless laps in the training room after moulting and receiving some shifted feathers, but he also tried to escape from his box as a daily routine.

He and the others had to wait many months for this moment: Freedom!