No, don't worry - it's not me!

I was referring to the growing flock of house martins which have been gathering above our Home Reserve at Rochdale this week. Each day the flock has grown larger and by Friday had grown to around 70 in number (hard to count exactly, as they don't stay still!)

Concerned for the poor weather forecast over the next few days, I was extremely relieved to see they finally flew off yesterday, and hope that they have safely made it down country and across the Channel to warmer climes for the winter months. Certainly the weather whilst I was in London this morning was dry, sunny, and 21°C - quite different to that back in Rochdale where it was bouncing down and only 15°C!

I expect the flock had been encouraged by the still-present number of flies to eat, to enable them to wait for the last of the late babies to fledge. Once the cooler autumn weather arrives and the frosts start, these food sources will disappear with dire consequences for such a bird which needs to eat around 8,000 each day just to survive.

Bon voyage.

Nigel