A big success in 2 successive years
The idea of building a nesting wall was primarily based on a need for having a permanent structure in place to accommodate Sand martins, as the natural sand face was deteriorating and the nesting barrels were at the end of their useful life. Sand martins had been on the site during the quarrying period, using the vast sand mounds stored for distribution to nest in each season. The quarry staff of the day, left the mounds in place until the Sand martins moved to their wintering grounds.
By building the wall, we hoped that it would retain a sustainable Sand martin population during a period when it was unclear how we would finance a rebuild of the sand face and replace the barrels. We were fortunate to be awarded a Biodiversity Action Grant from the Scottish Executive to begin the transformation of our Sand martin area by constructing the wall. Without this grant, it is unlikely that we would have encouraged others to provide assistance for other aspects of the Sand martin area development. The Biodiversity grant implementation team supported us throughout the project when unforeseen problems occurred and their flexibility aided us in completing the project on schedule.
A further aim with the construction was to increase the study opportunity of Sand martins by having a range of artificial nesting features side by side on the same site. Many others have built walls and used nesting barrels. As far as we are aware, no other site has a wall, natural sand face and 'homes on poles' together.
The first sand martins arrived at Murton on 4th April and immediately moved into the wall.
On 10th September 2007, the last of our Sand martins left for warmer winter climates.
