House Martin Survey

METHOD.
This year and nest the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) are running a nationwide survey of the distribution, population and nest locations of House Martins http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/house-martin-survey. As is usual with the BTO Volunteers are carrying out the survey and I am one of them.  The survey sample sites are km squares of the Ordnance Survey maps that are randomly selected by the BTO and offered to volunteers to select. I chose to survey two sites that I could walk to from home (as I don't always have access to a vehicle). My squares were SJ9255, Blackwood Hill and SJ9356, Gratton. Both these locations are small rural settlements a couple of kms northish of Endon.

The survey consisted of two visists to the survey sites, carried out between June and July. I went on days when the weather was good for me and House Martins - its much easier to do these things if your papaerwork and map isn't getting wet or flapping around in the wind, and you are more likely to see thse insectiverous birds flying about catching prey.

The BTO monitoring shows that in recent years the British House Martin population has suffered a declines in the southern half  of the country while numbers are increasing in the north. So, perhaps they are pretty much the same in the middle, where we live?

Naturally, walking around lanes looking up at people's homes and farms with binoculars attracts some attention, so you have to be considerate of people's privacy. the BTO supply a leaflet to give to interested members of the public. BTO leaflet I handed quite a few out. And, if residents were in their gardens, I went in to talk to them about what I was doing. Most people are interested and most have bird feeders out so I felt I woould get a sympathetic hearing, which I did. In some cases, when people were not in I left a note at their house with my phone number so they could ring me if they had any nests around the backs or their houses. Two people rung me and I have detailed what they said below.

RESULTS.

My results were perhaps dissapointing, though I was not really sure what I would find. I could only base my expectations on when I used to live in Rugeley (mid. Staffs) in the 1980s. One one of my houses there we had House Martins nesting above the back door, though I can't remember how many nests were there at any one time. Anyway, I found no nests at all in Backwood and no House Martins were seen flying, even though I actually went three times. Gratton was better. I did see a few House Martins flying and found four houses with nests on. One was an old nest from a previous year and the owner told me that it was not being used this year. Another two had occupied nests. And the fourth "colony" was four artificial nests which had been installed by the homeowner - they were not been used.

DISCUSSION.
Both of the two sample sites have mainly older, stone built houses, that would have been farmworkers homes or farms and one large house (Blackwood Hall). There are some post WW2 houses of brick structure and lots of farm buildings, mostly built on a frame and then metal-clad. Of course, these days most farmworkers wold not be able to afford to buy these properties, and so it looks as though most of them are occupied by retired professionals, who have the money and inclination to maintain and improve ther homes and "modernise" their gardens. Most of the buildings, particularly in Blackwood, don't appear to be suited to House Martin nests; they don't have eaves on which to attach the top of the nest. So this may be part of the explanation as to why there were few nests. I did not see any nest deterrents, which is one of the things were were asked to look out for. On one of the houses that did have one nest under wide wooden eaves, there was staining that indicted that there were once nests attached, but these may have fallen down years ago. The other issue is that, being a relatively wealthy area, people do repair their houses which may result in nests being removed and perhaps reducing the chances of a local population of House Martins continuing to use the area.

Two people did phone me to help me with information about the local House Martins. One was the owner of the house with the artificial nest boxes. He was on holiday when I did the survey, but he phoned me when he got back. He was keen to have House Martins nest on his house, as they had some years ago, before he had it improved. In an attempt to attract them back, in previous years, he had provided a mud bath for making the nests and a chcken wire frame where they could be attached.  These methods did not work. At present he has four artificial nests on the back of his house. they have not been used. The other people to ohone were a couple who I had spoken during the survey days. On that day they had one nest on their property; it was occupied with House Martins. They have had House Martins nesting on thir house for a number of years. A couple of weeks later they told me about what had happened that day. They had found a dead baby House Martin on the ground below the nest, it is one of the second brood this year. Later on they found two more babies - these were alive. So they put up some ladders and replaced the nestling. The parents returned and attended to the chicks. Then, later on the nestlings were out of the nest on the ground once again. this time they were both dead. It turned out that it was a pair of House Sparrows that had evicted the rightful owners! This is nature "red in tooth and claw" as they say. This is what happens very often in the wild. Birds and other animals compete for nest sites and territory, and sometimes it results in death. Even cute, little, inoffensive-looking House Sparrows can be agressive when their instinct to breed leads them to fight another species for a site for their nest (these homeowners also have House Sparrows nesting under roof tiles at the front of their house).  Which sort of brings me back to the modern trend to maintain buildings to a high standard. Perhaps this is one of the causes for the population decline, lack of suitable nest sites? Though, given the current warming trends in our climate which may be affecting food supplies and House Martin breeding success, that might play a roles in the explination as to why the population is increasing in the north and decreasing in the south. The survey carries on next year when participants will be asked to monitor breeding activity at House Martin nest sites. I will try to take part in that survey too. And, I await the BTO's results with interest.

A view towards Blackwood, one of the House Martin survey squares.