Barn Swallows, House Martins, Sand Martins
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| Sand Martin |
If this seems a lot of birds on the same page it probably because I have so few useable images. All of these small birds spend much of their lives on the wing, flying rapidly over the lakes at Corkagh and the surrounding grassland in pursuit of flying insects and are difficult to photograph. They are all members of the same family of birds and share much in common.
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| Juvenile Barn Swallows perching. They have yet to develop their long tail streamers. |
All are long distance migrants who spend the winter in sub Saharan Africa. They arrive at Corkagh from late March onward. All of them feed solely on flying insects weaving through the air with their mouths wide open to hoover up the flys.
They have bodies and wings designed for the agility needed to hunt in flight. As they spend little time on the ground their legs are much weaker. Nor do they stop to drink water, rather they skim over the lakes with their beaks open to scoop up water.
The Barn Swallow builds its bowl shaped nests indoors in the rafters of old barns, porches or sometimes under bridges. At Corkagh they nest in the old estate buildings along the lane. The House Martin on the other hand builds its fully enclosed dome shaped nest on the outside of the buildings. Both use their saliva to bind the nesting ingredients together. The Sand Martin builds its nest in sand banks if it is near the coast but it is a bird of inland waterways as well and will use quarries so it is likely that the ones flying over Corkaghs lakes are based in the huge quarry on the far side of the Naas Road. The Sand Martin burrows a tunnel in sandy rock such as can be found at Kingswood Quarry.
All of these birds can raise up to three broods in a year. Unlike many other bird species the swallows and martins are not territorial and nest close to each other. Swallow and House Martin young take a few days to find their wings and during this time the will perch near the nesting area. The Sand Martin, because their nests are bigger and they have more room to stretch their wings as nestlings are able to fly as soon as they fledge.
Unfortunately only about 30% of the juvenile swallows and swifts will survive their long migratory flight. The last brood to be born is at a particular disadvantage as they wont have had as much time to feed up before undertaking their journey.
In terms of appearance the Sand Martin is easily identifiable being a brown colour. The Barn Swallow has a distinctive red throat and long thin tail feathers. The House Martin also has these tail streamers but much shorter, it has a white throat and is a little shorter and broader.
