Swallows & Martins

This picture of a family of young swallows was sent in by Sue Cameron, who photographed them on the 24th July at Brian Culcheth's letting house, Otters Holt (details here). Within a week they had flown.

It's been a good year here for both swallows and sand martins, but the absence of house martins in Ormsaigbeg is painful. We saw one early in the season, but he was obviously passing through as we haven't seen any since, and all their usual nest sites are empty. There are some in other parts of Kilchoan, around the Kilchoan Hotel and Mingary, but even those aren't there in their usual numbers.

Across the rest of the peninsula the house martins are home in force. This picture of Coldstream Cottage on the north coast shows a thriving colony.

The Ormaigbeg house martins didn't come home last year so, while they were away over the winter of 2009/10, something terrible must have happened on their way to and from their wintering grounds in Africa.