Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sand Martin colony

The soft banks of the River Tyne upstream of Corbridge in Northumberland provide excellent nest sites for sand martins.

New burrows are ususally dug by males each year and last weekend they were introducing their mates to their nesting quarters.


At this stage there's a lot of excited activity, with aerial chases followed by settling in the mouth of the nest tunnels, then sudden panics where they all take to the air ...




















... before down settling again

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful to watch and your capture is better.

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  2. This is lovely to see. Reminds me of when I lived up there and used to go and watch them. Brilliant little birds.

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  3. Lovely to see them return isn't it?

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  4. I'd love to see that!

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  5. Beautiful shots. I hadn't realised that Sand Martins were quite so brown. I particularly like the photo of the birds with open wings.

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