No House Martins?—27 September 2026

I made two recordings this morning. The first, at the usual time, picked up nineteen birds—but no house martins.

Robin, house sparrow, blue tit, wren, chaffinch, coal tit, chiffchaff, dunnock, great tit, treecreeper, siskin, goldfinch, meadow pipit, bullfinch, blackbird, rook, tree sparrow, jay and starling.

Perhaps they were having a Sunday lie-in? I tried again around ninety minutes later. This time Merlin suggested seventeen birds:

Robin, wren, chaffinch, great tit, blackbird, blue tit, blackcap, jackdaw, chiffchaff, goldfinch, song thrush, siskin, treecreeper, rook, red crossbill, jay and long-tailed tit.

But still no house martins.

The red crossbill was an interesting addition. For now, it remains firmly in the “suggested by Merlin” category. But we have planted a very small Christmas tree plantation with ample cones right now, so who knows?

A heron flew onto the pond about half an hour after the first recording, bringing the morning’s total to twenty-five different birds.

I know one morning doesn’t mean the house martins have left. But this is the first time during this run of recordings that they have been missing twice in the same morning. It would be interesting if they left for their winter home on the day of the full moon.

I’ll listen again tomorrow. I’d love it if they are still here, but it’s a miserable day outside with that sort of 45 degree rain that gets into every one of your nooks and crannies, so I can’t blame them for heading off for a bit of sun.

Birds are identified mainly by sound using the Merlin Bird ID app. The list is a record of what the app detected rather than a confirmed survey, so occasional misidentifications are possible—especially with unexpected or particularly exotic visitors.