‘Despite a lack of viewings, my property is still in the market for house martins’ says Norfolk Wildlife Trust Reserve Officer Robert Morgan.
My house bears scars. And like most scars they mark trauma or, as these scars do, physical loss. The scars are five horseshoe shaped blotches of clay, embedded blemishes in the brickwork, and the last remaining evidence of former house martin nests. My neighbour, who has lived in our close since the 1970s, told me that every house had at least three nests under the eaves, and the back wall of his house once played host to seven nests.
In an attempt to lure house martins back I’ve installed three artificial nests, just where they formerly built their own little cup-like nests. I have even daubed fake droppings to make it look as if one is in use. House martins rarely use artificial nests but it is supposed to encourage others to build real ones close-by. The dummy nest-cups have been up for six years and not even one property viewing, but I’m still very much in the market for martins.
House martin nest by Margaret Holland
Growing up in the suburbs of London, the swallow wasn’t a bird we would generally see, it was the house martin that brought us tidings of spring, and they were quite common too. Wearing a uniform that’s much smarter and cleaner cut than the swallows’, this compact little bird has a blue/black head, wings and tail, which contrasts neatly with their pure white rump and belly. Every other house on the estate had a nest tucked under the eave and I’d watch them drop from their nests like an arrow, then dart, bank and swoop after flying insects. I imagined them as little spitfires in a dogfight.
The local Victorian-built hospital near my childhood home had well over one hundred pairs of house martins. The building has now been demolished, and it is only hopeful speculation that they all found somewhere else to nest. This isn’t just an urban decline, the Warden’s house at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Hickling Broad once accommodated 17 martin nests. Little has changed to the accommodation on offer here, but there hasn’t been a nesting attempt in ten years. At this point I’d normally say something positive or suggest a clever solution, unfortunately I can’t. Widespread declines in house martin numbers have been reported across Central and Northern Europe. Between 1970 and 2014 there has been an estimated 48 per cent reduction in numbers, with a 10 per cent decline since 1995.
The house martin’s tanned cousin the sand martin seems to be holding its numbers. This is where human activities have benefited wildlife, as old gravel workings provide the sandy banks in which they burrow out nest cavities. Old gravel extraction sites will often have flooded pits too, which are great for the martins to hawk for insects over. The sand martin is slightly smaller, is grey/ brown above with a pale belly and chin, its main identification feature is a well-marked brown breast band. The soft sand cliffs of North Norfolk provide their natural habitat for nesting and some nationally important colonies can be found from Hunstanton round to Sheringham. Norfolk coastal defence work prompted a contractor to string netting across a favoured martin cliff face to stop the returning birds from nesting, unsurprisingly it resulted in a public relations disaster, so the netting was taken down and work commenced after the last fledgling left its nest. It turns out that a clever solution wasn’t required, only some common-sense and decency. Fortunately, most Norfolk folk feel there is something distasteful about going to great efforts to stop birds nesting in spring.
Sand Martin feeding chicks, Happisburgh by Paul Taylor
April is when the bulk of martins and, their Hirundine colleagues, the swallow arrive back in the UK. I recall working on a boat in the middle of NWT’s Ranworth Broad when hundreds of house and sand martins dropped in during migration, they were in a feeding frenzy on the alder and Michaelmas flies that were swarming above the broad. All around us they displayed their wonderful acrobatic flying skills; for an hour they were with us, then they were gone.
These martins, like many of our breeding birds, were returning to us after spending the winter in sub-Saharan Africa. This is becoming an increasingly perilous journey, not only is the desert becoming an expanding obstacle, mist netting on both sides of the Mediterranean is trapping millions of birds each spring and autumn. Although this activity is illegal in EU countries it still seems to continue unabated. All the more reason to provide this little bird with shelter for those that do reach our shores.
A friend told me that he had to have a polite word with a new neighbour, who had jet washed a martin’s nest off the front of his house because bird droppings were landing on his car. Quite appalled, but remaining diplomatic, my friend informed his neighbour that martins were seen as a sign of good luck here and it was bad form to upset them. The birds attempted the next year, and his now mindful neighbour parked his car on the road during the few weeks the nest was in use. Not a clever solution, just common sense and decency.
Wildlife gardening and nest boxes for birds
Wildlife gardening for insects and wildflowers is a great way of helping garden birds, and you can go one step further to help our summer migrants by providing nest boxes for house martins, swift and a variety of other cavity nesting birds. It is really special when you get the chance to watch birds feeding and raising young at close hand.
For more information on building and installing swift boxes, as well as many other wildlife friendly actions you can take at home, visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions
Header image: house martins at Hickling by Elizabeth Dack