02-07-2014, 01:46 PM
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House-Martins.
Every year, a pair of house-martins would arrive in May, and look for a place to nest beneath one of our gable roofs. Other pairs would seek nesting places in nearby cottages, and following a close inspection for wind and rain protection, they would soon be collecting mud balls from the nearby river bank. Our pair, meantime, would invariably pick the place where they had failed for over five years.Things would start off as usual, and the base of the mud nest would stick to the house bricks just fine. It always seemed, though, that even when they had completed their nest and it had passed the building regulations, it would fall off the wall. After flying around for a couple of hours, they generally would abandon this nest, and seek another house. We found this a little upsetting, so I bought a couple of artificial clay martin nests, and fixed them securely beneath the eaves.
The following year, we waited for them to discover our helping hand, and they decided that they could work on them. The mud balls were brought in, and carefully fixed around the clay frame. The smallest of holes was left for their entry, and would have been invisible had we not been carefully watching them constructing them.
After a further two weeks, we noted that only one house martin was flying to and from the box. The hen bird had laid her eggs, and the cock was feeding her. Some time later, we discovered a broken egg shell on the ground beneath the box. Had they failed again? The following morning, a second egg shell lay on the floor, and we knew that the eggs had hatched. From dawn to dusk, the adults took it in turn to feed their youngsters, and finally the babies grew and left the nest. That first year, there were two broods, but they perhaps left it a little late for the second fledglings to make it on their migration to warmer climes.
Since then, whenever we see the first of the swallows and house-martins arrive back, we note that one pair will always come back to that nest site. Is it the same pair who return year after year, or perhaps their youngsters?
This morning, I went into the garden to see a flock of about two dozen martins gracefully weaving in and out of the trees. I knew that there were some of this years chicks up there, perhaps going solo for the first time. It cannot possibly be by chance that the other nearby nests were ready on the same day. By lunchtime, the house-martins, the swifts and the swallows were over the field, gliding and diving in such a beautiful way, intricately weaving back and fro.
Isn't nature so wonderful?
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