A spot of bird photography

Photographing house martins feeding chicks is a tad tricky as the whole process from flying in to feeding to flying out takes  little more than a second.

These were taken in the evening but the soundtrack of the birds was recorded at 5.36 am as there was no ambient noise at that time (I was near a busy road and the East Coast railway line).

Here are a few facts about house martins

• They’re summer migrants to the UK (apart from some areas in north and west Scotland) from April to October when they return to Africa
• There are about 510,000 breeding pairs in the UK
• They’re found around towns and villages
• Both males and females build nests of mud collected from streams and ponds. The male lines the nest with feathers but…
• …three quarters of nests contain chicks fathered by another male
• They return to the same nest sites each year
• They feed on insects on the wing
• They usually have two broods a year each consisting  of four or five chicks
• Both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the chicks which hatch after two to three weeks
• The chicks fledge after about five weeks

So there you go. If you’d like some tips on bird photography by all means get in touch and we’ll have a chat

Antony