By Jonathan Pomroy – Wildlife and Landscape Artist
Mass Desertion of House Martins in a North Yorkshire Village
Once you have lived with house martins it’s hard to live without them. As I write on May 15th we have a single pair of house martins which have yet to lay eggs. I struggle to see more than four house martins above our village of Gilling East here in North Yorkshire, which is about a quarter of numbers this time last year.
Only one of last summer’s six pairs on our house has returned, which leads me to think that our single brooded birds which vanished in July last year went somewhere else to have a second brood and have returned there instead. More proof of this theory could come from the fact that the only artificial nest occupied was the only one used for an attempt at a second brood last August- sadly all the nestlings starved aged about 15 days. I suspect this was due to a severe lack of flying insects causing five pairs to vanish. In many years living with house martins I have never seen them move on after a single brood before. There was no evidence on cameras of predation or disturbance by predators. The whole village house martin population was affected by this exodus, not just our colony.
I have never seen anything like the paucity of insects that I saw last summer with many insect groups affected. The likely reason is the record wet period we saw from July 2023 to Spring 2024. If only the house martins could see the abundance of insects here this spring!
So despite the incredible warmth and sunshine it all feels rather quiet here this spring. Aerial insectivores have been suffering here and the cause is certainly not a lack of nest sites. Gilling East has lost all but a pair or two of its swallows and the sand martin colony left in 2023. Swifts are down 50% on 2022 numbers. Sometimes watching nature is very hard and hope is difficult to find. How many other people see what I am seeing and feel the same amount of sadness at what we’ve lost in just a few years?
Truly you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. The skies above Gilling East are so quiet thus far. I miss the house martin noises by our bedroom window, their spectacular flight up to the eaves and the privilege of sharing our house with these wild animals.
But we must try and keep hope, the first time breeder house martins are yet to arrive and could make up numbers. The air has not been so full of flying insects for years, everybody is noticing, so if these birds do arrive, they may breed very successfully and help our local population recover.
You can follow Jonathan Pomroy’s house martin and swift diary in his blog at www.jonathanpomroy.co.uk, where you will also be able to view his artwork.
