This year we have had a plethora of House Martins 
House Martins – Birds of Britain website
House Martins – Wikipedia
They are swift, agile birds with black caps, dark steely-blue uppersides and creamy white tummies, who arrive in the UK in the spring and early summer, nest, raise their young and then depart for their wintering grounds in Africa. Our first lodgers arrived late in the summer about three years ago and proceeded to build a nest on a sloping guttering downpipe just below the wide eaves of our three storey house. They only just managed to raise their first brood in time for their autumn departure but we reckon they got about four fledgelings raised to adulthood. They returned, again late in the summer, last year and repeated their performance. Another pair of House Martins built a nest on an identical guttering downpipe on the other side of the house but we weren’t sure if they managed to raise a brood – perhaps they were the previous year’s offspring.
This year, we had House Martins much earlier in the summer but they seemed rather unfocused on the job in hand – flying around and feeding on the wing, making desultory attempts to repair the nest, giving up, trying again a few days later. We suspect that they might have been last year’s offspring returning ahead of their parents. Then more birds turned up and there were some fairly fierce arguments about who would take possession of the two winter-ravaged nests. At times eight or more House Martins were swooping and twittering around the nests. Eventually, they decided on the ‘pecking order’ and a pair took residence in each nest, repairing them and laying eggs.
So the first broods emerged much earlier this year and we were delighted to observe at least three fledgelings from each nest take to the air, with a great deal of encouragement from their parents. Even better, one of the downpipes became a ‘terrace’ with a second nest being built touching the original and more eggs being laid! Once the original brood had flown the nest, more eggs were laid and the second broods have just emerged from the nests to take to the wing
I stood in the garden yesterday evening just as dusk was falling and there were at least sixteen House Martins swooping overhead in blindingly fast acrobatic moves, twittering and chirrupping excitedly, as if the urge to fly south for the winter was becoming irresistible.
This morning some of them were really enjoying themselves, playing chase at top speed, ducking and diving, swerving and dipping until I felt quite dizzy watching them. I wondered if that was ‘the kids’ because other adult birds seemed to be intent on the nest. On closer inspection, I could see one tiny black-capped head poking through the side entrance of the mud structure and the fledgeling was keeping up an almost constant nervous demanding chirrup. One after the other, birds flew up to the nest, clung on for a few moments, twittering furiously as if scolding the errant youngster, before loosing their hold and skimming away. It looked as if they had an ultra-wimpy baby and were trying to coax it out of the nest.
It’s not unusual for House Martins to leave unfledged or unready youngsters behind when they depart UK shores for their distant wintering grounds. Then starvation or hypothermia will finish them off. I hope this won’t be the case for Wimpy but he/she is going to have to find some courage from somewhere and get used to venturing out of the safety of the nest.
I shall miss the House Martins and the sudden dark flash as they whisk past in a blink, twittering and chirruping as they do. They’ve been wonderful amusement this summer, hunting low for insects over the roads and nearby pond – even over the beach with its heaped up piles of seaweed – and indulging in astonishing aerobatics just for the sheer joy of it.
So I did the best I could and was hardly able to read the writing when I finished. But I did do a full A5 page non-stop so I feel quite pleased with that.
