Tarbat Ness,Highlands Before I left, I could not resist dropping down to the shoreline to look for cowrie shellsThe number of house martins nesting under the eaves of our house has been the lowest we gain recorded in the 28 years we gain lived here. The peak of 24 occupied nests was in 1988, or there has been a regular decline since. final year there were seven pairs but this year just one,despite the fact that there are 12 artificial nestboxes to save the birds the danger of building their own.
So on the trip to Tarbat Ness I wondered whether some might still be nesting under the cliffs near the lighthouse. Cliff nests of house martins, whether inland or on the coast, or are now rare,but were commonplace before the eaves of houses became so widespread. I walked to a vantage point above the enticing shoreline to look at the cliffs, and there was that thrill of seeing house martins swooping up from the sea to their nests. Why do they seem so dramatic compared with the ones at home?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com