House Martins

Sorry, I am in Cumbria.

Thank you all. I am still hoping as I have only seen the pair which nest on our highest eaves. Our house has the upstairs windows in the roof, so the eaves where we have 5 other nests are very low. When the HM are feeding young they fly in and out just above my head, it is wonderful. Thats how we know immediately they are back. They swoop in and out of the nests then seem to disappear for a week or so, I guess to feed up. We still see them around and about over the fields which surround us. We had so many last year, 2 or 3 successful broods in each of 5 nests!

Yes Robbo, we do have house and tree sparrows. For the last two or three years, a pair have ignored the sparrow box I put up, just a few feet away from the HM nests, and bred in one of the HM nest. Luckily, the house martins waited until the nest was empty then bred successfully anyway. Meanwhile, a pair of great tits used the sparrow box. The sparrows seem to be using the box this year.
I have only seen our 2 HM's and a couple of swallows and no swifts. It is very worrying but I have not completely given up hope.
Thank you again for all your advice and comments. I will let you know if others arrive.

Still no more sightings. Walked down to the local pub yesterday where they have loads of nests. We are used to the birds swooping everywhere and chattering to each other, it gets quite noisy. Did not see one bird. Is it too late to hope now as 2nd May?

Thanks Dave, I would be most grateful :-D

Hurrah! We were away up Nether Wasdale this weekend. When we returned today (Sunday 12th) our House martins have returned. I watched them swooping in and out of four of the nests so that is at least 8 birds returned (it looked more but time will tell how many nest here) about a month later than usual plus the pair who returned on time.

I have not had a chance to walk about our area so cannot comment on local house martin numbers elsewhere or swallows and swifts. I am so chuffed about the house martins. I can now look forward to summer, hearing their chatter each day, finding little white eggs on our path and watching the newly fledged birds emerge. It would have been awful without them.

We were on holiday in S W Scotland last week and House Martins seemed to arrive on the same weekend as us. By the middle of the week they were patching up the old nests on the cottage we were using. According to the owners the numbers were much lower than normal and about two weeks late, We were only over the Solway Firth from you Firecrest so conditions may be similar.

Thanks Dave......obviously you had a word and they listened.
They have been flying to and fro today, in and out of the nests. They always appear to be such happy birds.

Very few swallows down the "village" but unfortunately someone moved in to one of the houses last September and smashed all the nests, it was the main house for swallows nests as well. Opposite, another householder puts old cds along the eaves to ensure no nests. It baffles me why they live in the countryside......I don't think they deserve to!
Unfortunately, as more newcomers move in, it seems they hold similar anti-wildlife views. Sadly they have children as well so are passing these views on.

I agree, I don't understand how people cannot find pleasure in such lovely birds.

We do not have swallows, unfortunately. We have a small detached garage and have added a wooden box structure on the outside with a shelf and a purchased swallow's nest inside. No birds have shown any interest so I think the design may be wrong for them. We built it and attached it last year when the newcomer destroyed all the swallows nests hoping it could be an alternative.

None of the windows in our garage are designed to open so I would like to change the one overlooking the field and get one I could leave open. Just when we have some spare cash really.

Yes, we have a bonfire every year, only way to get rid of all the hedge cuttings etc. Mind you, our nearest neighbours are never here, they mainly live and work in the USA so we have never had any complaints.

I know of an American couple who for nearly 40 years did as much as they could for their Tree Swallows and their Martins which they loved very much. He built many nest boxes, putting them up on their two properties, one on a northern lake, and she enjoyed throwing chicken feathers up into the air and watching the Tree Swallows swooping down to catch them and then flying away to add them to their nests. They also knew that summer had finally arrived when their Bluebirds returned every year on the 30th of May and the birds then set about building a nest in the nest box he had also built for them.

Dave, Thanks, they inspired a few of their neighbours to become interested in birds as well, including the Ospreys nesting in a tree on the other side of the lake in the 1980s. The family joked that their oldest child would not stop bird watching long enough to get married, but would probably wear their binoculars to walk up the aisle! As for the Carolina Wren--that's a new one for me. I didn't know that any bird would nest in the compost!