Surveying House Martin nests visually from the ground (1 Viewer)

[Guizotia]

There are a number of House Martin nests on main road buildings in our village.

I would like to get an idea of his many are in use each year or each brood period.

Is there a particular time of the year/time of the day that activity will be likely, and how long would one wait per nest to have a good chance of confirming occupation?

 

[S_Man]

Half an hour observation would probably be plenty, at least when chicks are being fed? Before that, during incubation, birds are often very quiet.

 

[eddy the eagle]

It's best to observe from a distance with binos as from experience I have noticed that the birds will refrain from feeding young if too much attention too close is given.Please do not disturb the birds.Observe from a disatnce and enjoy.....Eddy

 

[stevefrance64]

A vacant nest will not have a newly formed mud lip on the old foundations so these can be discounted I suggest you observe at a distance early morning and late evening,
I have many nesting here in the barns , often under active nests mud pellets can be found together with their white droppings, they just lob out the egg shell so its possible to know the minimum number of chicks above
Bonne chance

 

[citrinella]

Hi Guizotia,

Apologies if I am trying to tell you stuff you know very well

At my place House martins are pretty resistant to short term disturbance. Nevertheless it is better to be cautious and I would certainly encourage viewing from a modest distance with binoculars. However, that might alarm householders, you might end up explaining yourself to police ! I think you should seek householders' permission first, and what about neighbours ? Perhaps you should put a note through letter boxes where you will be working so that people know who you are and what you are doing.

In general use of house martin nests does not require seeing birds at all. If you took a quick walk round, say, once a week, and check for dropped egg shells and emitted faeces you would soon see where nests are being used. Once chicks are a few days old they emit the faeces themselves, and it makes quite a mess (unfortunately unacceptable to many householders). However, another species such as wren, sparrow or tit may be using the nest. They make far less mess - once you can tell that difference, you will be able to be sure just from the pile of faeces. Another good way to identify species is to listen. House martins are very noisy in the nest, especially when they are warming up in the morning. Once you can recognize the chatter they make you will be able to tell whether they are in or not. Where several nests are jammed up against each other, it may be necessary to watch for a while to check how many are being used by house martins.

Incidentally recordings of their calls can be found here
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/h/housemartin/index.aspx
and here
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/housemartin.htm

Incidentally, fresh faeces include a lot of white. As they age, they discolour to black quite quickly, so you know if there is a lot of white, this is fresh.

You ask about time of year. House martins here have started building (old nests have been taken over by sparrows). How long till they lay depends on weather, and southern England will be ahead of us. I am in the BTO Nest Record Scheme and have first egg dates for the last four years ranging from 25th May to 9th June. We get second broods, which are very variable, presumably depending on the condition of the adults (apparently they can change partners between broods). Second broods can be very late, maybe not fledging till October, though more late broods fail.

I hope you will submit what you collect to the BTO House Martin survey :
http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/house-martin-survey

Have you thought about trying to encourage them to nest on your own house ? If this is an option I suggest getting some Schwegler house martin boxes (shop around on the web) and putting them up. The birds seem to prefer to build themselves (so ensure there is good sticky mud available) but I suspect they take these nest boxes as a sign "house martins welcome here".

Another poster suggested nests in use must have fresh mud added. In my experience that need not be the case. Nests which survive the winter in perfect condition may not have fresh mud added at all. If a nest looks in perfect condition, check anyway. Note that to be in perfect condition, the hole will need to be the right size, holes that are too large suggest entry by another species, probably house sparrow.

Mike.