Late brood

[pcolbeck]

The  house martins in our eaves are raising a new brood. They are just about fledged but still it seems a bit late. Shouldn't they be heading south by now ?

[tiermat]

A couple of weeks maybe, last year the Martins that were camped out in the farm buildings next to my B&B room didn't head off for their holidays until late September.

[Wowbagger]

I doubt if they will be sufficiently strong to make the journey.

Having said that, in 1976, I saw a pair of house martins flying around the sea front in Westcliff on 20th November. Competely exceptional as I have never seen house martins or swallows after about the 3rd week in October.

Last year a mallard clutch hatched at our local park in mid-October. I doubt if any of them survived.

Southend RSPB have a page showing the first and last recorded sightings each year. Last year, someone saw a swallow on 29th Oct.

[pcolbeck]

The local swallows have gone. Just their short tailed cousins remaining here.

[Sergeant Pluck]

The  house martins in our eaves are raising a new brood. They are just about fledged but still it seems a bit late. Shouldn't they be heading south by now ?

I wonder do they do this because their first brood has been preyed upon? Or is it related to temperatures?

[pcolbeck]

The first brood nearly perished when the nest fell from the eaves. We put the chicks and in a strawberry punnet with a hole cut out of it and lined it with straw we had for our bantam. Then we nailed this to the eaves. Mrs and Mrs House Martin successfully fledges these chicks later that week. After we took the punnet down they rebuilt the nest a few weeks later and now we have this second brood.  I must say the mud nest does not offer the same high quality viewing as the clear plastic strawberry punnet did

[Sergeant Pluck]

Fantastic  I thought wild birds abandoned their chicks if they had been in contact with humans in that way.


Sad to think of the new brood simply not having enough time to grow up enough for the migration 

[pcolbeck]

The poor chicks nearly perished when Mrs Pcolbeck put them in the banties run to keep them safe from the cat whilst she sorted out the strawberry punnet. Heney Penny was not enamoured and went to attack them as soon as our back was turned. Luckily Pcolbeck Junior spotted her murderous intent and removed her before she could kill them.  Chickens can be quite vicious at times.