HOUSE MARTIN: perilous journey to make a home

LIKE the swallow, the house martin has become a sleek symbol of British summertime although it spends its winter in eastern or southern Africa.

To get here, it makes a perilous journey and many are believed to die from natural causes en route or are trapped or shot by hunters.

The thousands that do make it choose to live in scattered colonies with females raising up to three broods each season comprising four or five chicks each time.

Such fertility obviously increases the odds in favour of the species' long-term survival.

Cliffs are still sometimes chosen as nest sites but most house martins return annually to favourite buildings and repair old nests or make new ones, usually under the eaves.

A new nest takes about two weeks to build and is constructed from as many as 2,500 individual pellets of mud strengthened by grass.

A superb flyer, the house martin can be told apart from the swallow by its slightly shorter, dumpier physique and small forked tail.

Its white rump and underparts also contrast more vividly with its bluish black back and wings.

Like its more elegant cousin, the house martin eats insects captured on the wing, swooping and twisting in a more frenetic manner than either the swallow or the swift.

Most people welcome the return of house martins to their homes, despite the accompanying noise and mess.

However, some residents undoubtedly come to hate them.

One man seen knocking down a house martin's nest and dumping the contents in a skip became the first person convicted of destroying such a nest at their own home.

The irate householder, from Lincolnshire, was fined £250 after dislodging the nest with a long pole.

Commenting on the case, RSPB spokesman Mark Thomas said:"Each year we deal with a number of reported incidents involving the alleged destruction of house martin nests.

"The RSPB believes that many people are unaware that house martins are a protected species and that the destruction of their nests constitutes an offence for which the maximum penalty, in England and Wales, has recently been increased to £5,000 or a six-month prison sentence. "Obviously the RSPB does not want to see members of the public being convicted of such crimes through ignorance of the law so we have launched a public awareness drive reminding people of the severity of these offences."

I should imagine the possibility of being incarcerated in a tiny cell will be enough to concentrate minds.