House Martins

Dave, Do Tony and Ann have photos of their Wrens nesting in a compost bag? And perhaps you could ask if their Bluebirds return on the same date every year? My guess might be possibly not because of climate change altering the dates of events, unless it is day length, not climate change, which prompts migration. The climate was a bit more stable when my American friends were actively watching their birds, but of course, day length was probably the same as now, changing only with the time of year.

Rewilding seems to be growing here in the UK. We have yet to visit it but there is a project which is doing fascinating things somewhere in Sussex, if I remember rightly. It is on the list to visit. Seems to be a controversial subject as some people seem to think it is an idiotic thing to do. If you come across the young man again it would be interesting to hear occasional reports here on the Forum, but possibly on a new thread!
Apologies for hi-jacking your Martin thread with other topics, Firecrest!

Not at all Ann, very interesting stuff.

Thanks, Firecrest.
Dave, Interesting stuff. If you start any new threads, please could you let us know on this thread; I'm overwhelmed with notifications at present which leaves little time to check for new threads. The problem began when we began house hunting after Christmas and I'm slowly catching up. As for Mr Steiner, it would be great to keep up with his project. And if he is Swiss, his name points to his heritage being from the German-speaking population of Switzerland as Steiner is a German name.

Dave, I've yet to visit Switzerland, but hoping to do so before I get too decrepit to travel! Not sure if there are any close relatives there now or not. The surname and numerous variants (I won't publish it here!) is fairly common there so possibly there may be hoards of distant relatives. On the other hand, the surname is an occupational name so perhaps only some are relatively close relatives! That great grandfather, his parents and all of his siblings including a couple of older half sisters emigrated in the 1880s. The 2 half sisters, who were presumably unmarried, went back to Switzerland, not sure of just when, but they did visit their siblings and father and stepmother at least once afterwards. The story, unconfirmed so far, was that the family had a haberdasher's shop but I've no idea if they sold it before emigrating or if the half sisters were able to go back to the business. His daughter, my Grandmother, had a lovely collection of ribbons.
Shame that the bagbirds only nested once in the compost bag. Love that your friend told you a fake date and time of day the Bluebirds appear! If the Bluebirds are only there briefly, presumably they nest somewhere farther north.

Hello Will
As Rob says, It is unlawful to interfere with the nests because numbers of these birds are declining fast and definitely need our protection. Sorry if I am being offensively obvious but could you use ear plugs, just while they are at their noisiest, or possibly move bed rooms for a while? I know you would be happy for them to use the other nests but destroying the nest mid-build will just drive them to find a totally new nesting site (or give up altogether)............and there may not be one, as more and more people destroy nests.

All this spring we have been woken at about 4 am by a bird that has a very limited song.....in fact it just repeated one note over and over again. Sometimes it was replaced by another bird that sang two notes, over and over again. :-D I love birds but there were times when I threatened to throttle them. Yes, I kept forgetting to put ear plugs in!

I now think it was a pair of sparrows, they are feeding young in a sparrow terrace we put up several years ago which I am really excited about. We had no sparrows here for years, then we planted a hawthorn hedge, left one to grow into a tree and sparrows returned. Thankfully, the one-note 4 am horror has now stopped.

I hope your housemartins breed successfully, I know you will get so much pleasure from these beautiful, happy little birds. Good luck with evading the noise!

Sounds as if you may have a male Chaffinch calling for a mate Firecrest!

Thanks Robbo, the sparrows have used one of the housemartin nests for last 2 years; but early. The chicks had more or less fledged just before house martins returned. That is why I am so pleased the sparrows are using the sparrow box I put up probably 10 years ago. Great tits use it every year and this year are still using it with the sparrows (going in a different entrance obviously).
I will keep an eye on the situation though as I would hate to loose the housemartins. I only ever get one pair of sparrows nesting...possibly because I have 2 rescue cats? They dont bother the HM but obviously the sparrows are wary. Anyway, thanks for the warning I will definitely watch the situation.

Wendy Thank you, we did wonder if it was a chaffinch but could never spot the bird in the trees! I am sure you are correct and it was a chaffinch not a sparrow, mystery solved! We do have loads of chaffinch feeding in our garden.