New home for sand martins
WORK GETS UNDER WAY ON NESTING PLACES AT COASTAL PARK
Some feathery friends will soon be able to settle into a new coastal home.
Members of South Tyneside’s Coastal Conservation Group ( CCG) are working with National Trust rangers from Souter Lighthouse and The Leas to build a new sand martin nesting site in Whitburn Coastal Park.
Work on the project, funded via the Local Environmental Action Fund (LEAF), started at the end of last month,
Dougie Holden, National Trust ranger at Souter Lighthouse and The Leas and CCG member, said: “Over the years we’ve improved the coastal park for wildlife, including installing bird feeding stations and creating ponds.
“We were all over the moon when we got the go-ahead from South Tyneside Council to build the sand martin colony.
“At the last count, we had about sixty pairs of sand martins nesting in the cliff tops around Whitburn and Marsden. They belong to the same family as swallows and are summer visitors to the UK, arriving in late March or early April after spending the winter in Africa. We’ve already noticed one or two birds flying over the site, as if they’re checking out the ‘new build’.”
Dougie added: “When they nest in cliffs, adult sand martins excavate tunnels up to a metre long before carving out a nesting chamber, which they line with grasses and feathers. They then lay an average of four or five eggs. Recent summers have been so wet, these eggs often haven’t reached fledging stage.
“During long periods of heavy rain, water seeps through the cliff, causing tunnels and chambers to collapse, sadly resulting in birds dying. We lost 46 nest holes in 2016.”
By providing an artificial nestingbankof128holes(completewithagrassroofandweaselbafflestopreventpredators entering) the birds will have a safe, stable place to breed.
The sand martin project has been made possible with help from organisations including Network Rail, whose design and construction team volunteered time to carry out site surveys and an ecological impact assessment as well as create a design for the colony building.
JT Atkinson, of Hendon, Sunderland offered a generous discount on building materials. The Owen Pugh Group, located at Marsden Quarry across the road from the coastal park,loanedmachineryand operativestocreatefoundations for the building.
John Dickson, group chairman of The Owen Pugh Group said: “We and the National Trust are neighbours at Marsden. We share a commitment to the environment and wider community on this beautiful part of the coast. We were happy to respond to a request to provide an excavator to assist in the construction of the nesting site.
“As well as giving valuable support to the local population of sand martins, it gave Owen Pugh an opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency and versatility of the new JCB Hydradig excavator, the first of its kind to enter service in the North East.” The sand martin nest project is expected to be finished in the summer. Anyone who would like to volunteer to help with this, or other wildclose