House and Sand Martins at Seething Wells

Even 12 years ago, the natural world of Kingston and environs was  very different. Prospect Road, just off the Portsmouth Road was a haven for house martins, who built their nests at the eaves of the cottages. One of the initial campaigners to save the Filter Beds had martins nesting at her cottage. There used to be clouds of them, along with swifts and sand martins, feeding over the filter beds during the summer.

swift

When building a new or repairing the previous years nest house martins are dependent on wet mud. This needs to be located near to the nest site, as the birds can't travel too far with loaded beaks. As the Lambeth Works were developed, (now Simpson Way etc.) supplies of mud were reduced to less reliable seasonal sources from puddles and so became weather dependent. This spring has been largely without rain, topped by strong drying winds, with no guaranteed local supply.  It would be good to retain a wet muddy area on the filter beds to try and help secure the future of these wonderful birds.


House Martins usually arrive in our district around the beginning of April according to Surbiton and District Birdwatching Society although it was probably slightly later this year (if at all). There are now < ten nests in the districts of Thames and Long Ditton, less than the former total for Prospect Road. Berrylands is probably the last stronghold for this little bird where they are able to find mud at locations along the nearby Hogsmill river (where there are no concrete revetments). Some of the nests are located within the eaves of the new houses on the Persimmon Homes development on the old filter bed site.

Sand Martins have been slightly more resilient until last year when they lost their nesting habitat. For  several years, a limited number of sand martins had nested in the drainage holes of the dip slopes at the filter beds, although a  larger number favoured the nearby camp shedding around Ravens Ait. Unfortunately, repairs were undertaken to the camp shedding  last year (while the birds were breeding) and the holes that they used to access the iron retainers, were blocked. Perhaps the drainage holes in the dip slopes could be modified in some way to be made more attractive to the birds as they have not taken them up as an alternative this year.

Sand martins arrive almost a month earlier than house martins and there are only two/three known nesting sites in the borough. Currently there are three pairs in the drainage holes along the Hogsmill at their usual place, which may represent the total for the borough.

Comments

  1. Benton25 May 2013 at 02:49

    Like most people at the time, I'm afraid I looked at the situation and assumed it was being undertaken under some ecological watching brief, as is normal for any Environment Agency project. As a public body they are usually more careful than any. How wrong I was.

    If someone had the time to ring the London office of the RSPB, they might be able to assist with the reinstatement of the nest holes as we could easily supply the records going back to 2010. Unfortunately at the end of the day I think it will be the old chestnut of Health and Safety rules, although ALL the Thames islands have a wildlife designation 'Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation'.
    Thanks for your interest

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts

Most viewed

Heritage Trees part 2: street trees.

Image
  Oaks and maples Cambridge Gardens 2019   Street trees can often be the most beautiful objects in our streets. They are important to their communities as well as having environmental benefits. They are a living history in our landscape and can have particular connections. They may be fragments of a previous landscape incorporated into a modern street scene, such as the oaks at Cambridge Gardens once  part of the Duke of Cambridge's estate.  A great read with information on how to research street trees is a  History of Street Trees by Dr. M. Johnston.  London plane trees CRE 1976 Beech tree, Chesterton Terrace 1976 Studies show that the difference in local tree cover can reflect the various socio-economic groups. In Victorian times middle class areas were planted with many street trees or had higher quality front gardens than working class districts; now referred to as 'green equity'. It can be demonstrated by looking at old photos of the seven roads that were
Read more

Fishing the Hogsmill

Image
Fly-fishing the Hogsmill   It is interesting to see the river from a different perspective: the Hogsmill is popular with anglers at this time of year; although it is unusual to see someone fly- fishing. A chub has just been caught on bread and it looks a good size. Trout are sometimes seen in the Hogsmill and can sit in the weir notch by the school. Our own Richard Jefferies in his book 'Nature Near London'  remarked on the Hogsmill trout as far up as Tolworth Hall Bridge (now the A240). chub    This fish was carefully unhooked and orientated in the swim where it soon finds it way - probably to the next father and son - sitting further upstream. These anglers have caught the 'ghost' koi within the last two weeks and appear to be the second successful pair to catch the pond-escapee in the last few days. Ghost koi are a British invention. They were produced by accident in the early 80’s when a farmer allowed a mirror carp and a koi to spawn together. The offspring
Read more

Seething Wells: they've done it again

Image
The last day of May, I went to see if I could find the black redstart that had been widely reported, no luck but it will turn up again on one of the old buildings. The lush vegetation was looking beautiful between the Filter Beds at Seething Wells. I made a note of the breeding birds: goldfinches twinkling away, blue tits gathering food, sand martins flying over the FB's (only two this year unfortunately) moorhens and some scruffy little coot chicks entangled in the algal blooms.   Proud parents were showing off their four Canada chicks; they can cover a lot of ground in a short space of time they were soon feeding on water pepper and bistort gleaned from  the ziggerat-sided basins. A song thrush sang from the wharf alongside greenfinches as well as the seasonal chiff chaff; although this year all numbers are down, reflecting not only the topsy-turvy Spring but also the continued tumble in insect numbers (even seed eating birds are dependent on insects to feed their young).
Read more