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House Martins in decline? Help survey them.17/06/2008 14:18:20
June 2008. BTO scientists are asking homeowners to be more tolerant of the mess made by House Martins, especially this year, as numbers seem to be down on normal levels. They are also asking for people to take part in a House Martin Survey. Are House Martins welcome or not? Nuisance factor Facts and Figures:
Huge migration New BTO survey BTO's Graham Appleton said: "We are pleased to be working with the BBC Radio 4 World on the Move series, to look at what is happening to House Martins this year. With the help of volunteers, we shall be able to produce a House Martin map for the new national Bird Atlas project and hopefully get a first indication of just how serious losses have been since last year."
Birdwatchers contributing to BirdTrack, the joint BTO, RSPB and BirdWatch Ireland project to collect bird records, are worried that far fewer House Martins made it back this summer. They may have been adversely affected by poor spring weather in southern Europe." Mark Grantham, who runs BirdTrack writes: "All summer we've been receiving emails and phone calls from recorders, wondering where their House Martins are and concerned at the lack of birds at traditional breeding sites. It appears that a few House Martins arrived quite early, in mid-March, but the main influx of birds was a good week later than in recent years. All our birds have arrived now and most will be hatching chicks, so it does look like we're missing a lot of our breeding birds." Most House Martins breed under the eaves of houses and other buildings. They often breed in groups and nests are sometimes joined together in terraces. Mud is collected from the edges of puddles and streams. Birds rarely travel more than 150 metres to collect mud. If they can re-use a nest from a previous year then they save themselves up to ten days of work. Join the survey
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Graham went on to say: "House Martins are believed to spend our winters hunting for insects over the forests of equatorial Africa. They fly north in the spring, crossing North Africa, Spain and France and arriving here in April and May. 
Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment
We moved to Chesterfield 2 years ago and were delighted to find we had house martins nesting under the eaves. We have three nests now. I love watching them swoop around; they are impressively busy! Their little black and white heads peeping out of the nests make me smile every day. We will miss them when they're gone. Our cat will miss them too for he loves watching them but they are too fast and the nest too high!
Posted by: Karen Beech | 15 Jul 2011 09:55:48
We have a pair of House Martins nesting in the apexes of our roof back and front.
They started nesting at the front 2 years ago, and returned last year. I was worried that they would not rebuild after the nest fell down in last Winter's gales. However they came back about two weeks ago and completed the nest in a couple of days. However the one in the back apex was started just two weeks ago and the pair are still completing it..which makes me think that they are from last years' brood. They are obviously amateurs!! I thought that they were swallows but obviously was wrong..
Posted by: sandra fraser | 23 Jun 2011 15:25:21
I have had house martins in two nests under the eaves of my house for the last few years,but this year I now have seven nests,two blocks of three and one single.As you can imagine it is very noisy but fascinating to watch.The most exciting thing to watch is when all the babies gather together before they fly away.
Posted by: judith clifford | 07 Jun 2011 18:12:31
For at least 6 months a pair of house martins have been living in Asda Supermarket Wheatley. They fly mostly amongst the girders in the open ceiling, but I surprised one on the lower part of the frozen veg freezer and can be very often seen hanging out around the bakery. They can also be heard calling each other across the store.
Posted by: anne coyne | 10 May 2011 21:18:26
In response to Rachel's maessage 'House Martins at Castelford '- our Martins' eggs are plain white . I wonder whether what you have are actually Swallows...?
Posted by: Karl Sweeney | 03 Jul 2010 11:19:39
We have two lovely house martins in our car port made out of mud the nests and feathers are inside the nest we have seen at least to yellow chick egs yellow with brown spots on them the female house martin is laying on her eggs as we speak and the male house martin is watching her it is so lovely to see cant wait for the birth of the little chicks
Posted by: rachel clarkson | 08 Jun 2010 21:41:15
We placed two artificial nests under our eaves this spring. One had two broods of three the other one brood only. But the birds built their own nests (each rearing two broods) adjacent to each artificial one so we had -at one point - four nests! Our neighbours also placed artificial nests (we all have plastic facias and guttering which seemed to have put the birds off over the last couple of years)under their eaves. All in all we calculate that between the six nests about over 24 chicks were successfully fledged . For information 'our' birds arrived on April 20th and left around October 12th.
Posted by: Karl Sweeney | 28 Oct 2009 15:31:51
Last Autumn there were about 18 House martins departing from our immediate neighbourhood in Manchester. Only two returned this year to re colonise a nest on our house. Nest colonies in the general area, which have had thriving colonies in past years have been devoid of birds this year. We used to take our children, as youngsters to the Eastwood RSPB reserve in Stalybridge before it was closed by vandalism. The Sand martin colonies in the reserve also crashed many years ago. Any other reports from the regions, RSPB or other Watchers ??
Posted by: Les K | 03 Oct 2009 21:02:45
House martins are very happy in Chilton Polden where I live.
This year among 12 houses, 6 had one or more nests.
At least 2 had more than 1 nest at the site and in my house alone there were 3 broods in 1 nest and 2 in the other with all babies surviving.
I still have 1 nest with fledglings and have had the happy chatter of these welcome birds since 21st April. They have been staying later and arriving later in the last 3 years.
Jackie Rymill
Posted by: jackie rymill | 24 Sep 2009 10:54:18
In reply to Monica the young should by now have left the nest.If you watch as it gets dusk (9pm ish ) you should see them all coming back into the nest for night.
There may still be time for the adults to have a second brood,in which case the first brood will be kept out of the nest as much as possible.
One day in September all will go quiet and you will know that that is the last you will see of them till next year.
Happy watching
Posted by: TERRY MASSEY | 25 Jul 2009 22:26:26
I have house martins returning every year to nest in their old nests and they always bring last years chicks back. This year some young birds tried to built nests attached to the other nests but one fell and 2 little chicks were on my path. I couldnt bear to leave them there as they are beautiful birds so i took them in and hand reared them. I have been hand rearing for 5 weeks now and there is no sign of them flying, they wont exercise their wings and they have full feathers but they will walk everywhere. I was wondering is it possible these birds have forgotten that they are birds and how am i going to help them fly so they make it for the migration with the rest of their family that is still nesting on my house.
Posted by: Zoe hughes | 24 Jul 2009 19:52:06
I moved into my house 8 years ago and was facinated by the House Martins that built under our eaves. when we moved in the estate was still being built but it didn't bother them. They have been back every year since and I love sitting in the garden watching them and thier many friends flying around. Today I could swear I also saw some Swifts.
Posted by: Lesley Jordan | 30 Jun 2009 13:45:47
I have house martins nesting at my home! I have kept a diary of events. I do not know very much about these beautiful little birds, I do know that I have become very fond of them, they built their nest just about three feet away from where I sleep, on my window whilst it was open, so they are so very close to me, in the past day or so, feeding time has become a lot less frantic, as though perhaps some of the chicks have flown the nest! Could this be so.
Would like to hear back with any views or their habits!
Posted by: monika summersell | 26 Jun 2009 12:01:17