Kitchen Garden Forum

I saw my first and only Hirundine..a House Martin... on 5th April. It wasn't around here though, we were on our way to Thornton-le-Dale at the time and we were somewhere near Wetwang when the little beauty zipped across the road in front of us.

They are a bit late this year. I've usually seen them whizzing about above our house before this in previous years.
Cheers.

I only saw one for the first time this year about a fortnight ago.

Our original pair disappeared without breeding, I assume at least one was lost to predation or accident. We were worried that our "colony" of one nest was going to be lost but late in the season a pair appeared and have raised what looked like a healthy brood of four when they left the nest this week. Perhaps some with good memories of our garage will be back next year.

Wow Geoff.. Swallows in the garage, do hope they come back next year. We noticed a few over Poole Upton Heath nature reserve earlier this week. Funnily enough, with the Martins they’ll soon be flying N.E. again so perhaps there is some ‘magnetic influence’ around here. Presume they quickly get some sense, and from further along the coast wing away South to warmer climes.

We had a wonderful experience at Myerscough Agricultural College in Lancashire this week: in the wonderful gardens , dozens of swallows were skimming over the lawns, almost between our legs and certainly within inches of us, swooping away over shrubs and buildings.

We still have swallows around here, now presumably gathering before departure.

Hi Monika,
Of all my Swallows I have just one pair still feeding a brood and the rest upped and went on the 4th September which is about two weeks early.
We are getting masses over flying or popping down for a feed over my adjoining field and then they are gone as quick as they come.
I get quite sad when they have all gone as they are such a joy to me which is why I always herald their arrival. When they arrive I always know that the new growing year is really under way.
JB.

It's a good job evolution is such a slow process or they wouldn't bother coming back with the run of Aprils to Septembers we have had (couldn't bring myself to use the S word).

Hi Geoff,
Was it 'saddo' or 'Swallow' or both.
JB.

The sad fact is that, over the 32 years we have lived in our village, the numbers of swallows and housemartins have declined dramatically here, the latter almost gone. Our neighbours' houses used to have housemartins' nests on them so, in hope, we put up an artificial nest under the eaves. I don't think it was ever used - the housemartins all but disappeared but the nest is now a winter roost for at least one blue tit.

Swifts, too, have declined the last few years.

Cleaner farms? Lack of insects? Change in climate?

Shabby old buildings (barns) done up - old place tractor/cow shed turned into ladies health & beauty parlor, & Elizabethan attics turned into extra floor of living space, people thinking the nests messy, as the village garage's new owner did - scraped the nests off & greased the area.

You are right, Peter. Thirty years ago, there were still a lot of used and disused barns in our village and many have now been converted into dwellings. A tannery with lots of old outbuildings was pulled down about five years ago and since then the bat numbers have dwindled. The Yorkshire Dales National Park required a bat survey and the builders who replaced the tannery with houses did put up a number of bat boxes, but by that time it was too late. Similarly with the swallows - once their homes have been destroyed they are loath to return.

In Germany, many new houses are built with swift boxes and bat boxes incorporated into the buildings and that, I understand, helps greatly to keep the numbers up.

I suppose the Swallows were lucky with the timing of our barn conversion. We converted part of a shippon into a garage which was going to have a big up-and-over door and a side door. The Swallows moved in before we put the doors on so we modified the design to give them permanent access where the side door was going to be and they have nested every year since. The neighbours get Martins but they didn't join us when I put up artificial nests. We get lots of Swifts but I have no idea where they nest.