Worried about House Martins

[Paul mabbott]

Interesting - I think that everything may just be slightly late this year - or perhaps food is good en route so they don't need to come so far north? Certainly martins and swallows were later than usual here and it was only last week that I saw swifts here. All of them were also rather late reaching the Midlands. I've seen several examples of martin nest-building in Derbyshire - mostly in churches!

Originally Posted by clydebirder

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Also a worrying drop in Swifts in my part of Glasgow (and in central Scotland as a whole from what I've seen) this year, Swallows are also not in the same densities as previous years, they are widespread but just not in the same numbers. Sand Martins seem to be holding their own though, some colonies slightly smaller.

It's very worrying, I'd hate to lose any of these birds

John

[A-daisy-a-day]

Hip , hip hooray I saw three swifts this morning, I had some business to attend at a housing estate in New Milton area and I heard this screaming, and there wer three swifts racing around, and it loked like ther was a bit of a battloe going on, mabe they were just glad to be back, I saw only one nest high up in th eaves of one house. I then saw a house Martin swoop up under the eaves of another. Lovely, I hope maybe they are simply late.
BTW checking on your Ladybird site, methinks I could have been mistaken on the number of spots on the ladybird I observed, I really must pay more attention, Interesting site, I was not aware there were so many types.

Sand Martin nest holes in the cliffs under Barton on Sea

[Vectisbirder]

My sister phoned me in a state of excitement earlier. She is moving to a new house at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire and the new place has got occupied House Martin nests.

Envious, me? Yes.

[Amoeba]

Wow I didn't expect this thread to still be going.

They're back here, though in low numbers - swifts are definitely more numerous. The house martins have started nesting (about 3-4 nests from our square at least). I saw a pair starting to build an old nest back up (only the shape of it was left on the wall) but they kind of gave up after it didn't seem to be getting anywhere - I do hope the neighbours have been leaving them alone.

[A-daisy-a-day]

Maybe the ground was dry and there was no mud??

[A-daisy-a-day]

Originally Posted by Vectisbirder

My sister phoned me in a state of excitement earlier. She is moving to a new house at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire and the new place has got occupied House Martin nests.

Envious, me? Yes.

I would be too, My daughter has them at Corfe Mullen, one of the fewer houses with old style cladding, which she will not have changed to plastic.

[moonpenny01]

What a fascinating thread! I live in the Forest of Dean and also noticed that house martins were very late in arriving, but this seems to be a very localised effect. Whereas housemartins 2 miles away arrived on time and were nesting by 25th May, housemartins in my area did not arrive until 31st May.

Until 5 years ago, nests would appear on an east-facing wall of a house, close by. There is now a presumably preferred site, 2 streets away, which is west-facing but more sheltered, which over the last 2 years has become highly populated, with 7 or 8 nests in very close proximity. Of course it could simply be that the housemartins that formerly nested on the east-facing wall did not survive migration, whereas the west-facing housemartins did and have bred successfully.