As I write this article at the end of March, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first house martin back in the colony on my Suffolk cottage. Last spring, the earliest arrival date for this forty year old colony was broken by the earliest ever arrival on 1st April. The weather forecast had...

When I began building my house at Crumlin in early May 1999, I noticed a huge flock of house martins availing of a large patch of mud which lay exposed for quite a long time at the lower corner of my site. I had been busy integrating sixteen swift boxes into the soffit of the...

House martins collecting mud – May 19th 2022 On 19th May 2022 the house martins in Gilling East were gathering mud to build or repair nests. I crouched against a garden wall with my sketchbook and watercolours to hand in a position which enabled good views, without disturbing their activity. I did receive some rather...

The Eaves By Jonathan R. Parsonage ‘Free as a bird to settle where I will…’ – William Wordsworth I Composed. Prepared for flight. A black eye beholds An unfamiliar sky. Sudden as the forming Of clouds over the sun, Bow-wing begins, buoyant, Expanding, floating like the Chink of a windchime, And circling The Eaves. II...