Swallows and Martins

The story with our local swallows and martins seems to be much the same this year as last.  The sand martins arrived first, and took up residence in their usual homes, the nearest of which is the small quarry near the fire station, a hundred metres up the Sanna road.

The house martins should have arrived next, but they didn't - the swallows arrived instead.  There seemed to be fewer of them, which might explain why some of last year's nesting sites lie abandoned.

Since then, some house martins have appeared.  They can be seen round Meall mo Chridhe and Dorlinn House, and there are reports of plenty of them at Kilmory but, just like last year, there is no sign of them in Ormsaigbeg.  So, for example, there are no house martins nesting at The Ferry Stores, and the nice nesting boxes we fixed to the end of our house, which had families in them two years ago, are empty.

However, The Raptor says there are plenty of them around Mingary, so many they keep distracting him while he's trying to 'work'.  The picture shows one of his house martins beginning to make a nest under the eaves.  It's interesting to see how it's balancing itself with its tail.

Many thanks to The Raptor for the picture of the house martin.