Nature Notes from Mid Wales (and elsewhere!)

‘Out of Africa’ (a tale of an epic journey)

Out of all our seasonal avian visitors I think the House Martin, ‘this guest of summer’ as Shakespeare put it, is our most endearing bird. It has had a long association with the structures created by man upon which they build their characteristic mud nests.

The tale begins in the spring when there is a mass exodus of these birds ‘Out of Africa’ when they migrate thousands of miles over land and sea to brighten up our summers. They start to arrive in Britain in April but their numbers peak in May. Where in the vast African continent they spend our winter no one is certain it is still a mystery that puzzles ornithologists. From about 300,000 House Martins ringed in Britain and Ireland there has only been one recovery from south of the Sahara, in Nigeria to be exact, otherwise there have been over 1,000 recoveries of ringed birds 90% of them in Britain & Ireland. Its likely that they spend most of the time on the wing unseen by man high up over some great expanse of a sub-Saharan savannah or African Forest feeding on insect prey and only evident when bush-fires take hold which no doubt send masses of insects skywards for the birds to hawk after or they are seen at lower altitudes in an effort to evade tropical storm fronts.

The House Martin is an attractive little bird with steel-blue/black upper-parts and white on the under-parts, it has a distinctive bold white rump which easily separates it from the swallows, sand martins, and swifts when in flight. It’s short ‘downy’ white- feathered legs can be seen when the bird is on the ground or clinging to the nest or a wall of a house. The tail is forked and lacks the long tail-streamers of its near cousin the Barn Swallow. The name ‘Martin’ possibly derives from the French ‘Martinet’ or ‘Martinette’. Its scientific name ‘Delichon urbica’ which is an anagram of ‘chelidon’ from the Greek khelidon - a Swallow and ‘urbicus’ pertaining to a city which presumably refers to their colonial nesting habits although I think a ‘community’ is probably a more apt description of their social interactions! In Europe they are more generally known by variations of ‘House Swallow’ I particularly like the French name for them which is ‘Hirondelle de fenetre’. They are widespread in Europe in the summer and are hardy enough to breed well within the Arctic Circle.

Stages of nest building. Image 6 shows an artificial martin nestbox - one side of which was occupied by House Sparrows!

Historically their mud nests were built on inland and sea-cliffs and on overhangs in caves indeed in some areas birds still utilise these natural primeval locations where they are exposed to summer gales lashed by the salt laden sea spray. In Wales, for instance, they still breed on sea-cliffs in the Castlemartin area of Pembrokeshire probably in excess of 200 pairs and sporadically elsewhere along our extensive coastline. Whether they still nest on the cliff faces of the Great & Little Orme’s near Llandudno in North Wales I don’t know perhaps someone reading this can answer that question for me. Apparently they can be observed from the marine drive route. Local to my area in the past they have bred on the rock face of a disused open deep cavernous slate mine shaft in the Bryn Eglwys quarries above the village of Abergynolwyn in Gwynedd. I actually visited there in early June but didn’t discover any martins in the quarry its is now tenanted by kestrels. Almost exclusively nowadays you will find their nests under the overhanging eaves of buildings old and new from our homes to castles and cathedrals and bridge structures. They build the nests by collecting pellets of mud or clay which they find nearby in ponds, streams or muddy puddles and then working it into a cup shape adding bits of plant fibres to strengthen the structure forming a sealed cup apart from a small oval entrance hole which they skilfully fly in and out of during their occupation. They line the internal nest with down, feathers and other light material which is collected in the air or from the ground. The female will lay 4 or 5 white eggs in this neat little creation and both sexes will incubate the eggs for about 14 or 15 days.

They are sociable birds and their colonies can number several hundred nests on a single structure particularly in some localities in Britain and Europe. On my property in mid-Wales this year (2008) I have seven nesting pairs two of which are conjoined all of them are new nests (the record on my house stands at 21 nests!). I take the old nests down each year because they often contain some of God’s lesser creatures in the form of parasites such as feather lice, mites, ticks & flea larvae which can survive for some time probably awaiting the return of their hosts in the spring! The nests too can occasionally contain dead adults or chicks. If you make the decision to leave them up that’s fine the birds will clean them out and carry out repair work on their return in the spring. In fact the old nests left intact over the winter can provide a cosy and safe roosting site for other species which are resident such as tits and wrens. One cold frosty morning in February many years ago I counted no less than seventeen wrens emerging from a House Martin nest! The wrens undoubtedly were huddling together for warmth against the chill of the night air.

The mud nests are usually safe from the visitations of bird or mammal predators. House Sparrows will sometimes bully the martins into vacating the nests which they then use to rear their own young in fact I have a male sparrow who has been chirping away on the roof of the gable end of my house ominously above three martin nests situated under the eaves below but he is more than likely keeping an eye on his female partner who is presently sitting on a clutch of eggs in an artificial nest-box I have fitted below the eaves intended for the House Martins! Great Spotted Woodpeckers can also be a problem as they can peck their way through the mud wall of the nest to take the young martins (fixing a woodcrete nest-box would prevent them doing this- see below). Many years ago in my youth when I lived in Newtown we used to have House Martins nesting under the high eaves of our Victorian house and at dusk one summer evening I could hear the chattering of the young from within a nest but I was not the only one observing the nest, perched on a tree close by was a Tawny Owl and it to could hear the chattering of the young martins. From the behaviour of the owl and the way it stared at the nest I sensed that it may attempt to attack it so with this in mind I made as much noise as possible in order to frighten off the owl which I imagine had ‘supper’ (or is it breakfast?) in mind. My efforts failed as I watched the owl fly from the tree towards the martins nest and with remarkable agility it flipped over and took a large chunk of mud from the nest with its claws the result was that a considerable proportion of the dislodged mud structure came crashing down onto the roof of a lean-to far below the nest. I had visions of finding a brood of dead chicks in the ensuing debris but remarkably a third of the structure containing the young chicks survived. They had clung on steadfastly to what remained. The owl’s attempts were in vain and within days the adult house martins had repaired the nest and their young fledged successfully.

One of the unfortunate aspects of allowing House Martins the privilege of sharing the structure of your home is that they do tend to make a mess with their droppings especially when they have young. If this causes you annoyance then it is possible to put a tray or a board of some kind underneath the nest to catch the ‘poo’. If you look at the image of a pair nest building on my house I can tell you that the birds initially started building a nest at the front edge of the overhanging eaves but because it was inconvenient there I discouraged them from continuing by attaching some plastic bottle tops suspended by string under the eaves and the pair undeterred by my action then moved around the corner! So I gave in to their demands and allowed them to continue but at least now we can watch them from the landing and in fact I can actually see the nest from our bed. It sometimes pains my wife to see so many nests as she feels that the washing put out to dry is constantly in danger of being ‘splattered’ with their mud or droppings as indeed occasionally our windows are especially when they are constructing the nests but its nothing that a bit of soap and water won’t cure! In spite of this rather minor inconvenience caused by our ‘guests’ my wife seeing the little creatures side by side looking all fluffy cute and nice peering out of their half built cup of a nest was completely charmed by them (it never fails does it!?).

Traditionally House Martins nesting on your house were considered to be a lucky mascot so if you are tempted to tear down their nests you may have to face the consequences. You have been warned! In any case to do so would be unlawful as their nests are protected by law as is the nest of any wild bird during the breeding season. If you wish to encourage them to take up ‘residence’ under the eaves of your house then they can be easily enticed by fitting specially designed artificially manufactured nest-boxes which are made of a durable ‘woodcrete’ type of material (concrete & cement mix as illustrated in the photograph taken on my house) and obtainable from the suppliers which I have listed at the conclusion of this article. These boxes can be easily removed for cleaning at the end of the breeding season. From my observations the main consideration for the effective fixing of the nest-box under the eaves of a building is to ensure that the birds have a relatively clear flight path to and from the box.

You could indeed employ a method adopted by the family of that famous observer of the natural world Gilbert White in the mid 1700’s whose brother affixed some large scallop shells under the eaves of his house to attract House Martins it seems that this ploy worked a treat and they utilised the scallop shells in no time at all. However although this is a novel idea I personally would go for the ‘woodcrete’ type of construction which will set you back between £10 and £16 at the time of writing.

So I am really looking forward to seeing lots of young martins whizzing around my house before very long which will keep me entertained until the end of summer during which time they will probably raise two perhaps even three broods. At the end of it all there is the inevitable sadness of seeing ‘my children’ as I call them gathering on overhead wires and on roofs and preparing to make their long journey south in the autumn crossing the channel and over the vast Sahara region in their millions from all over Europe.

In sub-Sahara Africa they may well spend their time in the company of other ‘hirundines’ (swallows and sand martins). Inevitably many birds will perish on this hazardous journey south and during the winter especially in inclement weather but many more will return to our shores the following summer, probably close to the locality where they were born, to bless our homes again with their mud structures and cheerful melodious chattering where as Shakespeare observed ‘the air is delicate’. I couldn’t agree more with the old bard.

Other ways to help attract House Martins or indeed Swallows to your garden is to plant flowers which provide food for pollinating insects which are fed on by the birds. I understand that Lavender (Lavandula augustfolia) and Woodruff (Galium odoratum) are good plants for this purpose. It would be beneficial to the swallows & martins if you could spare a section of your garden to create a muddy area to provide the birds with the building material required to construct their nests and no doubt your kids would love wallowing in the mud too! My wife and I certainly did in our childhood. The BTO guide on nestboxes by Chris Du Feu suggests creating a shallow muddy puddle about 1 metre wide. The mud should be a mixture including soil, lime, clay and cow dung (a bit hard to get if you live in an urban area I imagine!). Our House Martins get lots of mud and dung from the farm opposite us together with cow hair which they use to line their nests.

I hope my readers are fortunate enough to have House Martins nesting on your homes if not then please try to encourage them by the methods described in this article. If they already occupy nearby properties then you stand a good chance of a scouting bird, probably a male, spotting the potential of your dwelling and hopefully you will then have as much pleasure out of watching their antics as I have in my lifetime.

Suppliers of artificial nest-boxes for house martins in the UK are:- CJ Wildbird Foods Ltd, The Rea, Upton Magna, Shrewsbury. SY4 4UR Freephone order line 0800 731 2820 or online: www.birdfood.co.uk

Jacobi Jayne & Company, Freepost 1155, Herne Bay. CT6 7BR Freephone order line 0800 072 0130 or online: www.livingwithbirds.com

February 2008

February is a month when I start to get busy with the monitoring of Red Kite nests on my ‘patch’ of Wales. There are many of us from diverse backgrounds who give up our time to undertake this task on behalf of the Welsh Kite Trust. Team members of the ‘kite watchers group’ come not only from the four corners of Wales but many from England as well who assist in the task of locating and monitoring established pairs at traditional nest sites or to look for new ones. The kite is doing well in Wales with probably around 600 pairs but there are undoubtedly many nests which the Welsh Kite Trust are unaware of so if you are a landowner or farmer and you are reading this and you have a kite nest on your land this year I implore you to tell the Welsh Kite Trust about it. Any information you give will be dealt with in strict confidence. It is important to establish the true picture of the population in Wales in order to ensure their protection. I know that farmers love to see kites on their land and are very protective of them and the Welsh people owe the farming community an enormous debt in helping the recovery of the kite in recent decades. No ‘official’ kite watcher working on behalf of the Welsh Kite Trust will trespass on your land without your explicit permission and even then the individual would have to be in possession of a licence issued by the Countryside Council for Wales. So please help the kite trust to locate any unrecorded nest sites. Please pass on any information you have to Tony Cross of the Welsh Kite Trust - telephone 01597 825981 or e-mail info@welshkitetrust.org

Of course when I am out ‘kiting’ as I call it I’m constantly looking for other birds to and in the past week I have seen some interesting species, a displaying female Goshawk, common crossbills, peregrines, dippers, woodcock and on one particular day I parked alongside a common covered in dead bracken and a few small isolated trees and I thought to myself that this would be a good place to see Yellowhammer and lo and behold just a few feet away from me in a tree bare of leaf cover was a beautiful yellow and brown coloured male. I adore these birds they are so at home in this kind of terrain. Many people I know in my area have yellowhammers visiting their gardens in winter but I have yet to record one in mine. Looking at this Yellowhammer I heard the call of the Curlew and was looking skyward for the bird but couldn’t see one. There was a further call and I was sure that it came from the direction of the wood which I was looking down on which I thought was a funny place to find a Curlew! It then struck me that it could well have been a bird such as the Jay perhaps who was mimicking the Curlew’s call. I could almost imagine the Jay chuckling at me from within the woodland glade! Vocal mimicry of course is not uncommon in the bird world and I guess the most celebrated exponents of this behaviour are the Indian Hill Mynah’s which are often kept in captivity and which learn to imitate the spoken words of their owners sometimes embarrassingly so! When I worked as a zoo keeper many years ago I once did a stint in the parrot house where one of the inmates, a parrot species of which I cannot remember, frequently uttered a four letter word expletive ending in ‘off’ within hearing range of the zoo visitors! I guess one of the keepers must have taught the bird this rude word! And there are other bird mimics such as lyrebirds, mockingbirds and warblers and even our own humble starling, that great songster, has a fair repertoire too. I’ve often heard them imitating buzzards. So when you next see a starling in full song sit awhile and listen to it and see if you can pick out any familiar everyday sounds! Ceredigion Bird Club Walk

On February the 8th and an intrepid group of 20 of us took part in an interesting day out birding. We travelled by train from Machynlleth to Porthmadog. This was a very ‘Eco-friendly’ way to go birdwatching and full credit must go to our leader for the day Liz Snell who organised the trip. The fare was only £6 return for me and cheaper for those who qualified for a railcard. We travelled on the magnificently scenic Cambrian coast line and we saw a few birds on the way. We must have looked an odd bunch to other passengers on the train a group of ‘twitchers’ with binoculars looking out of the windows on one side of the carriage at an apparently empty sea! On the way a fulmar was spotted and some common scoters in Cardigan Bay. We all got off at the Minffordd stop on the south side of the ‘Cob’ and walked along a country lane for a short distance recording the birds seen as we went along. The walk across the cob, which is a man made causeway crossing the river Glaslyn, was interesting and we saw a good number of duck such as teal, goldeneye, wigeon and shoveler and little grebe too. It was a rather chilly day and we were glad of the shelter provided by the high wall of the causeway across this estuary. We were glad of a lunch stop at the Ffestiniog railway café. In the afternoon we continued our walk around a muddy creek which produced some interesting waders and an eagle eyed member of our team spotted a couple of hen harriers quartering the Glaslyn marsh in the distance. Some ladies in our party (often referred to as ‘birding widows’!) decided to take a walk into town to have a look around. While we were on the top of the embankment looking at the waders in the muddy lagoon I saw a bird of prey flying from further up the valley and I called out ‘Goshawk’ it turned out to be a kestrel so I had my leg pulled on my misidentification. I could have crawled under the nearest bush! Someday I might learn not to fall into the trap which often befalls my kind I don’t think there is a birder alive who has not made an error of identification in the presence of others at some time or other in his or her life. It would have been far better to call out ‘raptor’ until the bird’s identity could be positively established. We ended the walk at Porthmadog railway station where we caught the train back to Machynlleth.

This is the list of birds we saw during the day:-
Fulmar, common scoter, carrion crow, mistle thrush, redwing, great tit, blackbird, greenfinch, chaffinch, jackdaw, starling, robin, collared dove, siskin, bullfinch, magpie, woodpigeon, heron, wren, mallard, shelduck, teal, treecreeper, song thrush, shoveler, black headed gull, wigeon, meadow pipit, redshank, dunnock, house sparrow, raven, goldeneye, lapwing, herring gull, great black-backed gull, little grebe, cormorant, curlew, snipe, dunlin, Canada goose, common gull, hen harrier, oystercatcher, buzzard, black tailed godwit, pied wagtail, red breasted merganser, kestrel, peregrine, feral pigeon.

A multitude of ‘Birds’

December and January will be months which I shall remember for the great numbers of birds I have seen in their winter flocks ranging from that dashing little continental finch the Brambling, swirling masses of Starlings at the pier in Aberystwyth and huge numbers of waders around the Ribble estuary in Lancashire. I’ve seen good numbers of Brambling at two locations locally. There is a fine stance of mature beech trees on the edge of the village of Derwenlas near Machynlleth where a good crop of beechmast has kept a couple of thousand of these lovely finches happy rooting around the woodland floor. I watched scores of them during one particular windy afternoon the occasional strong gusts of wind was blowing the vast accumulation of leaves about and the Brambling looked perfectly camouflaged amongst the browns of the dry rustling leaves. Brambling, or Pinc-y-Mynydd in Welsh, arrive in Britain in great numbers from their northern breeding grounds from mid September onwards. Huge flocks of two to three million birds may be seen in mainland Europe in winter where roosting flocks of about 20 million birds have been recorded! They breed in open upland birch and mixed birch and conifer forests from Norway through to Russia to the shores of the Bering sea and as far south as Italy. They also breed irregularly in Iceland, the Faeroes and they have even bred in northern Britain. In summer their diet consists of seeds, caterpillars and other insects. In the winter they switch to a seed diet with a particular penchant for beechmast. In Britain you can often see mixed flocks of Chaffinch and Brambling and they are regular garden visitors in fact I’ve had a couple of Brambling in my garden this winter and its easy to miss them in a group of their smaller cousins.

On the 16th January I popped up to an area of extensive forest called ‘The Arch’ or ‘Y Bwa’ in Welsh, situated between Devils Bridge and Cwm Ystwyth this location has the delightful name of ‘The head of the pass of lost existence’. The Arch itself is a stone structure which was erected in 1810 by the Thomas Johnes family of the nearby Hafod estate to commemorate the golden jubilee of George III. Until recently this landmark construction spanned the road but following damage to its structure by a vehicle a new road construction now bypasses it.

I set up my scope in the car park at ‘The Arch’ and watched an enchanting group of about 23 Common Crossbills (Y Gylfin Groes in Welsh) feeding on pine cones. These acrobatic ‘parrot’ like birds were breaking off the cones with their beaks and carrying them to a nearby branch where they held the cones under foot against the branch which allowed them the leverage to prise open the cones with their specially adapted ‘crossed’ bills in order to extract the nutritious seed. The beautifully rosy-red and pinkish colour of the male bird was quite striking. Whilst I was watching them I glanced to my left and vast numbers of Brambling flew through a woodland gap into the main body of the forest ahead of me there were lines of them then a break then another group of birds they must have numbered thousands. In this forest too there is a 200 year old stance of mature beech trees thus providing the Brambling with a source of beechmast vital for their winter survival. I suspect that the British winter of 2007/2008 will prove to be good for ‘Brambling’ and of course this may be coincidental with the heavy snowfall in mainland Europe during the winter preventing the birds from reaching the beechmast forcing great numbers of them to fly westwards to the shores of Britain where our landscape has been relatively snow free.

During the afternoon I called by the Nant-yr-Arian kite feeding station and here counted about 80 Red Kites at feeding time. They looked stunning in the excellent sunlight. Through my scope I was able to read a few ‘kite wing tags’ on perched birds which I subsequently passed on to the Welsh Kite Trust to record on their database. I finally ended the day at the Pier on Aberystwyth’s seafront to witness the nightly return of the Starlings to this regular winter roost. The swirling masses which arrive here in groups of thousands before dusk are an impressive sight. They occupy every available nook and cranny on the pier structure.

The last weekend of January my wife and I spent in Lancashire. On Saturday we paid a visit to the Martin Mere Wetland Centre managed by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT). This magnificent wetland reserve covers 150 hectares and as well as a resident collection of 100 species of the World’s rare and endangered ducks, geese, swans, cranes and flamingos it is also a home to thousands of wild wintering wildfowl. During our walk around the nature trails we saw a couple of thousand pink footed geese, hundreds of Whooper Swans, ducks of all kind Wigeon, Teal, Pochard, Mallard, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, hundreds of Lapwing and in terms of birds of prey we saw three Peregrine Falcons. This is a really family friendly centre with lots for kids to do with an outdoor adventure playground and craft rooms for children where they can paint ceramics, make badges or do some brass rubbing amongst other things. A great place to ‘dump’ your kids with grandma or grandpa while ‘Mum and Dad’ do some birding around the nature trails and visit one of the excellent hides. Martin Mere is an exceptionally fine centre to introduce your family to the fascinating world of waterfowl. For more information about the centre or the work of the trust please visit their website on www.wwt.org.uk or call the centre on 01704 895181.

The following day there was a good spring tide so we took a spin along Southport’s Marine Drive. Here you will find the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve which is the most important site in the UK for wintering waterfowl hence its designation as a ‘RAMSAR’ site and an ‘SPA’ (Special Protection Area). It occupies over half of the Ribble Estuary including extensive areas of mud and sand flats. It supports over 250,000 wintering ducks, geese, swans and wading birds. On the south side is the RSPB’s reserve at Marshside. There are two hides and three viewing screens here where you can watch the birds without causing them disturbance. On this area of wetland pools and grassland we saw literally thousands of Wigeon and other ducks such as Shoveler and Teal. Numerous Black-tailed Godwits and thousands of Lapwing. There were good numbers of Ruff too. We took a stroll down past the sand-works to watch the almost ‘fluid’ masses of countless wading birds which were escaping the rapidly flooding tide in the estuary. We watched them at a safe distance from the incoming tide busily feeding or resting on the mud flats. There were Dunlin and Knot, Grey Plover and Redshank along the edge with three Little Egrets flying about. Its best to park on the Marine Drive next to the sand-works. The end of the Pier at Southport is also a good spot to watch the concentration of waders at high tide.

The mystery of the bird feathers

Recently I have been finding patches of pigeon feathers scattered about on the ground at numerous locations near my home for instance in my garden, in the field below our house, in the woodland, on the edge of the road, and its pretty clear that the local woodpigeon population has been taking quite a hammering from a predator of some sort. I have had my suspicions as to the culprit and when I took ‘Taff’ the dog for a walk around the woodland behind us between Christmas and New Year I disturbed a large bird of prey perched in a solitary tree on some open ground. From the brief view that I had of the bird I am fairly sure that it was a large female Goshawk but I am not definite about its identity. That would indeed account for the large amount of pigeon feathers I’ve seen. Of course it could also be a Sparrowhawk. I have ruled out a Peregrine Falcon as I think I would have found the remains of the wings and breast skeleton of the prey item. However the jury is still out on this one perhaps some day I will catch an avian raptor in the act!

Suggested reading for a ‘birding’ trip to the Ribble Estuary and further afield is ‘Where to watch Birds in Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire’ by Jonathan Guest & Malcolm Hutchenson published by Christopher Helm.

We stayed at a former coaching Inn called the ‘Millstone at Mellor’ near Blackburn which is a comfortable and quiet country hotel situated in a quaint village perched atop a hill. Here you will receive a warm welcome from the Chef Patron Anson Bolton and his staff. The hotel’s cuisine has deservedly earned it the award of 2 AA rosettes. The food is delicious and the portions are ‘generous’. There is an excellent wine list too and you must try the locally brewed ‘Thwaites’ beer which is really good of course it has to be as the original founder of the brewery Daniel Thwaites is buried in the cemetery next door!

See the hotel’s website on www.millstonehotel.co.uk

Nature Notes 2007

Nature Notes 2006

Nature Notes 2005