House Martins and a Gift of a Dead Swallow

House Martin 

I love my House Martins and last year by the beginning of June I was wondering whether the pair that breed on the house were going to return. They did eventually return and only had one brood. This year they arrived back at the house on the 7th April.

House Martin returning to its Nest

In recent days I was quite surprised as it appeared that there were often three to four adult birds leaving the nest at one time. On closer examination it turned out that one pair was building a nest adjoining the nest already there.

House Martin Nest Building

Meanwhile at the same time on a gable on opposite side of the house another pair has been building a new nest.
The first few days of the new build seem to be a rather slow process as they wait for the first bits of mud to dry to the wall but as the days go on the process seems to speed up considerably. The farmyard of my neighbour seems to provide them with all the material.

House Martin with Building Material

House Martin's resting on their new build

House Martin with Mud

Carefully Placing Mud onto Nest

Proud of Her Nest Building

Yesterday afternoon a father of one of my sons friends knocked on the door to give me a dead Swallow as he thought I would be interested. It was an adult male with long streamers but most interestingly of all was that it was ringed in Italy. So I sent the details to the Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica where ringing recoveries are recorded and await news of when and where it was ringed. Swallows don't weigh very much it weighed 15 grams.

Ringing Recovery from Dead Swallow