SEVERAL communities in West Devon have been recording sightings of nests and colonies of Dartmoor’s declining house martins as part of a joint project from Dartmoor National Park and Devon Birds.

Speakers from Dartmoor National Park Authority and Devon Birds delivered presentations to six Dartmoor parishes in June and July, to introduce the Dartmoor House Martin project and to get people actively involved in surveying for house martin nests in their parish.

This year the pilot survey is focusing on six parishes across the national park — Chagford, Dunsford, Horrabridge, Ilsington, Mary Tavy and Buckfastleigh West. All the presentations were well attended and involved a lot of lively discussion around what might be causing the house martin declines and what could be done to help them. In total, 60 artificial house martin nests were given in a raffle to those who attended and reports have been received from several people that their nests had been put up and they were waiting for house martins to move in.

Since launching the project and asking local residents to survey, there have been 62 records received, ranging from single nests to colonies of around 25 nests.

Chagford recorded 22 active nests, Horrabridge 13 and Mary Tavy four, while Ilsington saw 56 nests, Dunsford 52 and Buckfastleigh West 25.

Kevin Cox, chairman of Devon Birds, said: ‘It is not too late to do more survey work. We will give a plaque to the winning parish and there is still a chance to win this competition if you go and find more active nests in your parish.’

Naomi Barker, Dartmoor National Park ecologist, said: ‘There are lots of things that people can do to make their parish better for house martins. You can put up artificial nest cups — either shop-bought, or why not try building one following the instructions on the website? You can also provide as much food as possible for house martins.

‘House martins need lots of flying insects and to have a lot of insects, you need to have a lot of flowers and avoid the use of pesticides. We can provide advice on wildlife gardening or creating community wildlife spaces for those who are interested.’

The project is funded in part by the Postcode Lottery Fund.

More information on the project can be found online at www.dartmoorhouse martins.org