House martins tweet themselves to a “ferry” unusual nesting spot

A family of feathered friends have joined regular passengers on one of CalMac’s ferry routes.

The house martins have swapped their usual nesting place of under the eaves of a building for a cosy spot on board MV Loch Fyne, which operates between Fishnish on Mull and Lochaline on the Morven peninsula.

Ornithologists say that this choice of nest site is unusual but not unheard of.

A protected species which are on the UK Red List of Conservation Concern, they often return to the nests they build in the UK after spending their winters in Africa.

CalMac skipper John Cameron said: “The house martins are lovely and are drawing great attention from passengers. 

“When the Loch Fyne served at Lochaline from 1997-2016, we regularly had house martins nesting on board in the aft hydraulic cabinet.

“The Loch Fyne left that route for Mallaig to run there for nine years. Her replacement vessel, MV Lochinvar, never played host to them for whatever reason, but when the Loch Fyne came home this year she once again became a nesting place for these beautiful birds. This time they chose to nest outside our messroom at the bottom of the wheelhouse stairs.”

NatureScot ornithologist, Benjy Wilcock, said: “This is interesting and unusual behaviour, although not unheard of. There have been a few previous cases documented of house martins taking up residence in ferries in Northern Ireland, Greece and elsewhere in Europe. As far as we’re aware though, this is the only known case of this happening in Scotland. They will often return to the same nesting sites and certainly have been known to return to ferries multiple years in a row.

“House martins migrate thousands of miles from sub–Saharan Africa to Scotland each year, so perhaps these birds didn’t think much of a few extra miles back and forth each day.

“While it is great for those on board to see this unique sight, all breeding birds are protected so we’d encourage people to enjoy from a distance and not to disturb their feathered fellow passengers.”