Fairies come to life in Geelong gardens
FAIRY martins are the smallest and prettiest of the three species of swallows that frequent the Geelong region.
Like their larger cousins, the welcome swallows, they use mud to construct their nests, but theirs are no simple feather-lined cups.
Fairy martins are sometimes called “bottle swallows” because of the shape of their nests.
Resembling a flask or bottle lying on its side, with a long, down-curved “neck”, the entrance is just large enough for the martins to enter.
Cuckoos and other uninvited guests cannot intrude.
Inside the nest is a “floor” of dry grass and a bed of feathers on which the eggs are laid.
The birds nest in colonies, usually about 20 pairs combining to build their nests close together, much as we build apartment blocks.
Constructed from mud pellets collected from a wetland nearby, the birds incorporate dry grass stems to hold the pellets together.
Fairy martins often use bridges or road culverts as the site for their nests, but the site has to have easy access at each end, and aligned in a way to minimise wind or rain blowing through.
Recently I watched about 20 pairs of martins tending their nests built on the ceiling of a large, deeply-eroded granite boulder.
That there were young in the nests was obvious from the many half egg-shells on the ground below the nests.
Soon the breeding season will end, then in March or April the birds will fly to spend winter in northern Australia.
The vacated nests will then gain their winter tenants, bats perhaps that hibernate in comfort, or spiders or other little creatures.
Whether the fairy martins return next spring is not known, but I hope they do. Wildlife information and questions can be sent to ppescott@optusnet.com.au