The trouble with herons - they seem to be targeting kingfishers' nests for an easy meal

                                       

Phil Espin - lively presentation by county club chairman 

IF you have housemartins nesting under the eaves of your home, treasure them!

That was the message from Lincolnshire Bird Club chairman Phil Espin in an illustrated presentation to a meeting, held in Grimsby Town Hall, of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.

Like its fellow hirundine species, the swallow, the house martin is in decline.

This is partly because of loss of nesting habitat but also, it is believed, because climate change is changing the emergence times of the insects on which it feeds.

Phil's entertaining and informative talk  was on the birds of Lincolnshire with special reference to species to be found along the Louth Navigation Canal which flows 11 miles from Louth Riverhead to Tetney Lock and along which he has occasionally walked there and back.

Sightings (and hearings) of some farmland species, such as yellowhammers, that regularly used to be commonplace on either side of the canal, are now few and far between.

While acknowledging that changes to farming practices and loss of biodiversity have take their toll on birdlife, Phil, who lives in Louth, was far from despondent because, given a chance, species can bounce back very quickly.

What is more, there has been a substantial increase in numbers for some waterbirds such as little egret, great white egret, gadwall and goosander, while the Cetti's warbler seems to be extending beyond is traditional wetland habitat.

Although not common, grey wagtails and kingfishers seem to be holding their own along the canal.

The latter might be more plentiful if it were not for the fact that predatory herons have learned to find their eggs and chicks by poking their long bills into their riverbank nest holes which, as a rule, are not very high above water level.

Herons themselves do not seem to be much disadvantaged by the population growth of egrets but there is some anecdotal items that, they are spooked by the presence of buzzards which have increased dramatically in the county since the turn of the century.

Phil dedicated the talk to his friend and fellow-birder, John Clarkson, who died last year and whose photographs he featured in his talk.