MY HOUSE MARTINS 2007

Another season has passed for the house martins that breed on my house in Borstal,

again moderately successfully, with two pairs raising one brood each.  This is in

contrast to about ten to twelve years ago when at least three pairs would raise two

broods in a season with the young of the first brood helping to feed the second.

In the years since then another change has taken place, apart from only raising one

brood each and that is as soon as the young are flying well, and not returning to the

nest every half hour or so, parents and young leave the area and all is quiet. But this

year I have kept a closer watch on the nests and have noticed some evenings when

one or two birds come into the nests at dusk and stay the night. This ties in with the

observation I made in last yea1t’s report about birds turning up late in the evening.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine, Eric Philp, who has been ringing birds in the

Maidstone and Medway area for the last fifty years. One of the places he used to ring

was the reed-beds near Burham. In Autumn he and his friends used to catch large

numbers of swallows and sand martins but never house martins.  So what happens to

them after dark, as with all hirundines it is assumed that they do not fly at night?

Towards the end of August things may have become clearer as on Monday morning,

August bank holiday, I was woken at about six o’clock by martins making quite a din

in the nest box above my bedroom window. They left the box to be joined by another

dozen or so birds. This group spent the next two hours flying around the area feeding

and generally having, can I say, fun, and then as if the leader said ‘right lads it’s time

to go’ they all formed into a group and off they went due south, never to be seen again. 

Now the question is, were they birds from further north, as I had not seen any martins

about for several days in my area? If they were birds passing through how did they know

a place to spend the night was on my house and a couple of other houses down the road

from me? I put this question to Eric, who is a fount of knowledge on all topics natural

history and his answer is that there must be knowledge passed from generation to

generation on places to feed and spend the night.

As to the question where do our house martins spend the winter, it does not seem that

there is a clear picture on this, as when they cross the Sahara Desert they seem to

disappear? A small number are seen over Zambia most years flying very high and small

groups are seen flying around sewerage farms and bush fires. There have been a few

recovered in West Africa but only one from south of the Equator. This only applies to

birds ringed in Great Britain as birds from further east in Europe do migrate south of

the Equator. Long may they turn up every year to breed, they certainly are a fascinating

bird.