sand martin colonies destroyed

swifts need our help!

Two weeks ago builders destroyed two sand martin colonies in Antrim town. This breached the planning application because they had agreed to build two new concrete banks for them before destroying the existing banks.

The colony has been there for four years but the builders decided on health and safety grounds, because children were alledgedly playing on site, the banks should be flattened. I got to hear about it two days later and began emailing people. That Thursday a site meeting took place between various people and the builders agreed to reinstate the banks

This week the sand martins have been busy building new tunnels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtFPG_5c3rY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw25d_Q7qFY

Birdnuts

At least the birds hadn't nested yet

swifts need our help!

they were present the week before but just checking over the site

The day after the banks were fixed a friend went down and using a trowel made short tunnels to let the birds think nothing had happened.

What was interesting is many used his trowel holes while others would rather make their own.

Using my car as a hide I could watch them digging. It looks like they dig using their feet

snowstreams

I had always imagined that they would use their beaks. That would be strange to see them use their feet!

swifts need our help!

They were fluttering to stay in position and clearly doing a shuffle with their feet