Today (Tuesday) I had another full day to myself and decided to go back to the sand dunes to see if any more Wall Brown butterflies had appeared. On the way there I got distracted for over an hour, and took so many photos that they deserved a blog post of their own.
Just past Splash Point there is a disused gravelly car park. There was a puddle in the middle of it, which proved to be an ideal spot to watch House Martins.
The House Martin is a small bird with glossy blue-black upper parts and pure white under parts. It has a distinctive white rump with a forked tail and, on close inspection, white feathers covering its legs and toes. It spends much of its time on the wing collecting insect prey. The bird's mud nest is usually sited below the eaves of buildings. They are summer migrants and spend their winters in Africa. Although still numerous and widespread, recent moderate declines earn them a place on the Amber List.
So take one muddy puddle in a disused car park, a busy area for dog walkers, joggers and cyclists, stand back and watch for a while just how near you can get to the House Martins (just a few feet judging by the amount of human traffic passing by) and this is what you get.......
So before I had even started my walk I spent a very pleasant 90 minutes watching these amazing little birds gathering mud to build their nests.
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