Diary: June 2003

As the British Trust for Ornithology report that many house martins and swallows are expected late in Britain this year (see Garden visitors will arrive late), I'm left wondering if I will ever have them nesting on my house again.

When I first moved to my current address some five years ago, we were privileged enough to have one or two pairs of house martins nesting on our house. Breeding success seemed to gradually diminish and last year was the first year when they did not attempt to nest on the house at all. This year I have not even seen a single house martin anywhere near the house: I can only hope that 'our' birds will be among the late arrivals. The house now sports an artificial nest - I hope that it might encourage the birds back.