Water of Leith Swifts

18/08/2026

Additional edited video footage of the house martin tower capturing the house martins coming and going from each of the five occupied nests 🥳🥳

For those reading this on the SOSSSH or House Martin Conservation UK & Ireland pages pls see original post titled “Part 2: House Martin Project Jedburgh” on Water of Leith Swift's fb page for more context. FB did not allow the original post to be shared to these pages for some unknown reason.

NEST CUP BOX
House Martin Conservation UK & Ireland

18/08/2026

Part 2: House Martin Project - Jedburgh

Following on from part 1 where we had immediate success with the artificial nest cups (anc) for house martins in the window frames of the farmhouse we are over the moon to announce that we have also had immediate success with this stunning house martin tower created by NEST CUP BOX.

Early in 2026 whilst we were down at the farm doing the planning for the window frames we started to discuss how to grow the existing house martin colony by providing new nesting opportunities elsewhere on the farm as all the usable window frames were already occupied.

We went away and had a think about what could potentially be built and got in touch with NEST CUP BOX who were already supplying the ancs for the window frames and following a bit of discussion we all decided to embark on designing and building a tower that could safely accommodate a meaningful number of new house martin nests.

Keen to grow a much larger colony of house martins the farmer agreed to go ahead without knowing how the tower was going to look or indeed whether it would be successful. The budget was set and the tower roof design and build took shape over the following weeks and months.

Installed in mid June, well into the HM season, the tower stands over 5m tall on an old Openreach telegraph pole that the farmer had lying around. It has a total of 18 artificial nest cups with space for further cups to be added or even natural mud nests to be created. All the nest cups are shaded from the sun and rain by the overhangs and eaves.

In the weeks that followed installation the weather was not the best but after three weeks the farmer thought he had seen a house martin leaving the roof structure and we went down to investigate as soon as we could.

When we arrived it was immediately apparent he was indeed correct with two neighbouring nests on the far side obviously in use. I cant describe how amazing it was to witness two martins leaving their nests at exactly the same time, just after a synchronised chirp to signal it was safe to leave the nests, and then a short while later we got to witness the martins entering both nests. The fear that the tower may never be occupied was quickly replaced with the realisation it may well be very successful 😊

By the end of July the farmer reported additional activity on the other side of the tower and spent a bit of time trying to capture some footage. Incredibly it quickly transpired that three new nests next to each other had now been taken on this side.

Within 6 weeks of installation 5/18 of the available nest cups have been taken by breeding house martins and everyone involved in the project is absolutely delighted with how it has panned out and the sense of excitement for next summer, and what it may yield, is immense.

This house martin tower would be perfectly suited for large gardens, parks, farms and new build housing estates. They are best located in quiet, sheltered areas where there is not a huge amount of human activity in the immediate vicinity. There are literally 1000s of suitable locations across the UK. Imagine the impact on the UK house martin population if every farm had its own tower (or two)!! House Martins are voracious eaters of mosquitos, midges and other flying pests. Buying a house martin tower and growing a long term population of beautiful martins is a lot cheaper than buying tonnes of pesticides every year alongside being far better for the environment.

We will post a second video separately - without background music - showing all of the nest entrances/exits that we managed to capture in the short time we were down at the farm.

We have even cheekily started calling these first pioneering birds to colonise the tower by a new name "the tower martins"😆

Openreach look at what we have done with one of your redundant telegraph poles!! What a fabulous method of recycling them to provide vital new nests for our beautiful and characterful red listed house martins 😀😀♻️♻️

We or NEST CUP BOX would be delighted to chat to anyone with any questions.

House Martin Conservation UK & Ireland

13/08/2026

A truly magical moment. At 7pm this evening we released Sunshine🌞 the swift chick that was found grounded on Easter Road.

It takes a team of caring people to save a swift chick that has left its nest too early and for it to be for it released strong enough for it to migrate to Africa a few weeks later.

Thank you to the finder Steph for saving this bird’s short life by picking it up and seeking expert care for it.

A huge thank you to Lorraine at Baby Beaks Garden Bird Rescue for caring for and rehabbing Sunshine over the last three weeks.

For my part as a chauffeur to Sunshine twice it was an absolute pleasure. It was a shame the roads were so bumpy for what are likely to be her only car journeys 😩

As you will see from this clip Sunshine was extremely keen to get out of her box and take to the skies and we only just managed to catch the event on camera it all happened so quickly 😂

The correct protocol for releasing swifts is never to launch them into the sky but to slowly raise the swift in cupped hands to about head height and it will either fly away or not. This determined bird had already wriggled free and was airborne by the time my hand was at hip height 😅

She flew away very strongly and did a couple of circles over our heads on Leith Links before heading south east on the warm breeze which will hopefully transport her safely to Southern Africa.

Fly high beautiful little swift and may the swift gods be with you on your epic adventures 😘😘

13/08/2026

We were in Wardie earlier this week installing two double swift boxes from Impeckable nest boxes and feeders in “Copper Brown RAL 8004” across two neighbouring properties. The boxes look stunning and perfectly compliment the ridge tiles in the local area.

The swift boxes are on east and north facing walls so no sun canopy was required.

We have been down to this property three times over the last six weeks and on each occasion we have seen either a pair of swifts or a single swift overhead which is very encouraging for the chances of one day attracting swifts to the new boxes.

Both properties will be deploying swift callers to attract the swifts to their new nests when they return next May.

As always we wish the two amazing households all the best in their quest to have “their own” swifts residing with them each summer🤞

If anyone is interested in installing swift boxes at home or place of work please get in touch and we will be able to provide expert advice.

11/08/2026

This evening may well be the last chance to see and hear swifts this year as they gather in large excitable groups ahead of migration. A good excuse for a pint in Stockbridge 😂🍺

11/08/2026

Look up! Huge numbers of swifts gathering high up over Stockbridge and Canonmills ahead of their migration to Africa. Lots of happy screams as they form these large groups.

07/08/2026

Delighted to report that the swift named Sunshine that was rescued from Easter Road 10 days ago is doing really well at Baby Beaks Garden Bird Rescue with its two new friends and is nearly ready to be released 💙

Our VIP guests at Baby beaks are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce .... and Sunshine 🌞
These 3 Swiftlets came in separately over the past couple of months and have been snuggling up together. Swift Babies love to snuggle!

However Sunshine is almost ready to get released as she's a bit older and has reached the right weight and wing length (.... she's in the middle of the photo)

Taylor & Travis will be waving goodbye with their very long wings!

Many thanks to Vivienne Thomson (and all the Baby Beaks supporters) for the generous donations that mean I can buy another brooder! 🥰

Space has been very limited with 118 birds last month and 17 already this month..... but releases have been getting done.... more on that tomorrow!

www.babybeaks.org

04/08/2026

After a slow start this morning numbers are building as we get closer to lunchtime ❤️

Shot at 3x zoom for a closer look 👀

03/08/2026

And now a screaming party of 23 swifts 💪🎉🎉

Not the best clip as they were quite a distance away and it was raining and pretty gloomy.

03/08/2026

Lots of swifts over Canonmills this morning!

Next year any predictions of the swifts leaving before the end of the first week in August should probably be ignored!

The screaming party in this clip was our largest of the year at 15 birds 🎉🎉💪