Nature Notebook

House martin artifical nest © Jonathan Cartwright

Wild housemates

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Worcestershire Wildlife Trust @WorcsWT t worcestershirewildlifetrust G worcswildlifetrust.co.uk w

If you’re missing the feathered friends that call your home theirs for a few months each year, you’re not alone…

Arriving on holiday a couple of years ago, I was delighted when I spotted that we were sharing our cottage with the chuckling chatter of house martins. There were several nests under the eaves and we watched fluffy faces appearing at the hole, eager to know when the parents would be back with more food. It was delightful to watch these birds grow up; I was only disappointed that we weren’t there long enough to watch them fledge.

Sadly, I see fewer house martins every year. These beautiful bluey-black birds with a white chest and white rump have seen a 57% decline in their numbers between 1969 and 2018. What’s gone wrong for this formerly widespread and familiar bird that many of us have enjoyed sharing our homes with…and is there anything we can do to help?

There are three main reasons but there are things that we can do to help. One of the reasons is that breeding success is lower than it once was. Recent studies show that newly built nests and those built on plastic soffits tend to produce only one brood (in ideal conditions, house martins can produce up to three broods in a year). Artificial nests or old ones that need a bit of maintenance help the birds to raise more broods. When you consider that it takes at least 1000 beaks of mud per nest and that mud can be difficult to find, perhaps this is no surprise. Another major reason for brood failure is the lack of insects to feed on. House martins catch their insect prey as they fly but with huge decreases in our insect populations (41% of UK insect species face extinction), finding meals is becoming harder to do. Finally, these are birds that leave our shores in September, bound for warmer weather in Africa. Climate change and agricultural intensification along their migratory route, though, are making it harder to find food as they move from country to country.

It may sound bleak but there is hope. If we all do a little something, we can start to turn around the fortunes of house martins and other wildlife. If you own your house (or have an easy-to-persuade landlord), why not erect a couple of artificial nest boxes (or leave up the old nests) ready for next year’s breeding season? House martins need insects on the wing so if you’ve got a garden, a patio, a balcony or even a window ledge, get planting. Whether it be nectar- or pollenrich flowers, leaving patches of long grass or allowing a small patch to go wild, our insects will thank you for it and, in turn, so will our feathered friends. Visit https:// www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/blog/seasonal-spot/ saving-our-high-fliers for lots of inspiration, ideas and a free book to download with more information.

We’re keen to know how our house martins are doing across Worcestershire so if you’ve got them nesting on your house or nearby, take a picture of their nest and send it to us via www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/ wildlife-sightings n Wendy Carter Worcestershire Wildlife Trust