Our (hand reared) House Martins have flown

[Stroo]

Both of them (Paul & Norman - get it??) - have just left my upstairs studio window to meet with pals and are preparing to fly off to South Africa.

I'm very very proud after feeding them mealworms for week or two in preparation.

God Speed little guys!!!

aw how nice,well done you.

how lovely.

Aww lovely.
We have house martins near us and they nest in several houses and the neighbours moan constantly about them. We love them and watch them fly about for ages but they dont nest on our house.

Oh fantastic. We have six nests on our house I love them. How did the hand-rearing come about?

I get the Paul and Norman joke. Does that make me the oldest on the thread?

Well done btw. How lovely.

Why did you end up rearing them? Where was mum?

Probably not SM. I saw them supporting the Smiths back in 1984 or thereabouts which makes me feel very old indeed.

My sister is a vet and someone bought them in saying that they had found them on the ground - probably fallen out of a nest too early.

They were about two weeks off flying and at first i had to prise their mouths open to feed them but they soon got the hang of it.

She has cats btw and no housemartins near her - we have them on our house so she thought i'd be the better choice to bring them up.

I think they have about 50% chance of making it back next summer - can't beleive they're going to South Africa!

I have loads of mealworms left - pie anyone?

off topic but there was a pine marten character in one of my sons books - I was convinced it was a bird.

If you let the mealworms pupate and then hatch out you can have some lovely black beetles to replace Paul and Norman with - (yep I get the names too - oldie!)

Well done on releasing them. Put the other mealworms out in a dish for the local birds to eat