Homemade housemartin nest cup success. (1 Viewer)

[BirdwatcherTB]

Yesterday I put up a homemade housemartin nest cup. (I know it's late to expect any breeding at all I wanted to see if any juveniles would be interested to remember my house for next year or see if any would want roost.) After reading on a couple of British websites some recommended playing martin calls similar to playing swift calls. In about 20 minutes of playing the calls I had attracted a few birds I suspect from a nearby colony up the road. They all inspected the home by flying up to it and going inside. Once they knew it was there I stopped the calls and they've continued their interest today. I would definitely recommend making your own as its very cheap and you can make it look very realistic. Hopefully I'll have some breeding birds next year.

 

[delia todd]

Any chance of a picture of the nest?

Did you take any pics while you were making it?

 

[BirdwatcherTB]

Any chance of a picture of the nest?

Did you take any pics while you were making it?

Here's a picture of it up under the soffit. The picture makes the colour look very dark. It's quite a bit lighter in real life.
I don't have any pictures of the making sadly. Firstly I covered an old bowl with a bag or newspaper and taped it down. I then mixed filler with some wet clay soil with a higher ratio of filler to make it stronger. Then I cut out a small opening. Let it set then attach to a backboard. I used gorilla glue. I then (optionally) put little pellets of mud with bits of straw to make it look realistic.

 

[delia todd]

That's an excellent job!!!

It really does look quite realistic. If you have the wherewithall... they do nest colonially, so they'd like a few friends as neighbours too

Thanks so much for showing it to us.