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The Herald Scotland

How to encourage swallows and house martins to your garden

Some migrants still build mud nests in caves and under cliff overhangs, but many are now attracted to our villages and towns. Our houses and outbuildings offer safe spots and there's often a goodly insect population for their chicks. We can help by providing an artificial nest from a garden centre. This is usually very popular with potential occupants as it saves time and energy spent on constructing their own. A nest must be placed at the correct distance from an overhang and where it will be sheltered from hot sun, wind and driving rain. A successful artificial nest is very worthwhile. There's evidence that birds using one or a previous year's nest actually raise more chicks, both because it gives them the time to have more than one brood and because the nest is less likely to collapse, causing an all-too-common brood failure. And House Martins find it impossible to make mud stick firmly to our modern, plastic soffits. Read more An easily-accessible outbuilding is great but if you need to shut or lock a shed overnight, be sure to keep it shut all the time. For security reasons, I have to lock the workshop at night, so must always remember to keep it shut all the time to keep out exploring birds. For hygiene, we have to regularly clean bird feeders but since both Swallows and House Martins reuse nests from the previous year, a build up of nest parasites doesn't seem to be a significant problem. As well as providing accommodation for these migrants, we can also ensure our gardens have a steady supply of insects. Swallows and House Martins feed on small flies, aphids, flying ants and beetles. And to my delight they'll help reduce the dragoons of blood-sucking clegs and mosquitoes. Swallows often skim low over short grassland and burns but House Martins tend to feed higher in the air. Since they need fairly small insects, especially for feeding to their chicks, it's important to grow lots of open, flat topped flowers like Achilleas and umbellifers which attract small flying insects. Let herbs like dill, fennel and coriander flower and later in the summer the flowering stems of mint are also useful. Check out which flowers attract small flies, not just the larger bees, and see if you can grow more of them next year. Sadly we have no control of the effect of climate change on all of this. Unusually dry springs like this one and wet summers like last year reduce insect populations and warmer early springs bring migrants before insect populations have built up. So all we can do is provide the best conditions possible. Plant of the week Plant of the Week (Image: unknown) Iris germanica 'Florentina' is an early flowering bearded iris with silvery white falls and standards and yellow beards. The sharply pointed buds are tipped grey/blue. It is scented and the rhizomes are a source of orris used in perfumery. Hardy and long-lived, my slowly growing clump has been flowering for decades, it will thrive with good drainage and a sunny spot. The leaves persist in to the winter but become rather tatty and it best to trim them up in early spring.