Starter Homes for House Martins.
Funded by those who contributed to the BTO House Martin Appeal, over a two-year period ‘citizen scientists’ across Britain provided experts at the BTO with vital information regarding the species. The results are detailed in a newly-published paper that will be viewable online before long at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ibi.12888
The scientists gained valuable insights into the House Martin’s life. Of particular interest for their conservation, it was discovered that birds that used old nests from previous years or artificial nests had greater breeding success than those that built from scratch.
Above: There’s a clue in the name (apparently coined by the naturalist Gilbert White in 1767) and few British birds are so intimately associated with human occupancy as the House Martin. This migrant summer visitor to the UK spends the winter in sub-Saharan Africa, and returns to build its diagnostic cup-shaped nest under the eaves of buildings during April and May. Building a nest of mud is a time- and energy-consuming process and installing artificial nestboxes gives them a valuable head start in the breeding stakes. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd.
Dr Esther Kettel, lead author on the paper, said “From our findings it is clear that one of the simplest ways to help House Martins in the short-term is to provide artificial nesting cups – this can save around ten days of nest building time, giving the martins that use them a head start on the breeding season.”
Above: Like all migrant birds, House Martins are subject to the vagaries and extremes of weather as they move between wintering grounds in Africa and breeding territories in Britain and Europe. This particular flock of tired spring migrants was ‘downed’ by a prolonged period of strong winds and torrential rain. There is an irony to the fact that they were photographed, huddled under a bridge, on the Greek island of Lesvos where a human migrant crisis is being played out. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd.
The readership of this blog is most likely to view House Martins, and wildlife generally, in a sympathetic light. However, it is important to remember that there are members of society whose attitudes and priorities are different and I can think of an example, uncomfortably close to home, in the village where I live just north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. Despite its rural setting, not all its residents are in tune with the countryside and a few see wildlife as something to be contained and controlled. I recall with some sadness the arrival of new neighbours one winter a decade or more ago, and their first act of occupancy which was to remove all the House Martin nests under their eaves. Despite pleading on my part, nothing could persuade the new human occupants of the house that the nests were anything other than an eyesore, and the birds anything more than a nuisance to be discouraged. It would be nice to think that introspection during Lockdown has resulted in them re-evaluating their relationship with nature. But I fear it will require somebody with greater powers of persuasion than me to change the attitudes of these particular neighbours.
Above: In the vicinity of breeding colonies, the twittering flight call of the House Martin is a familiar sound. Sadly, the birds have all-but abandoned my neighbourhood, despite attempts on my part to attract them back. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd.