Banking on Sand Martins

It’s quite magical watching dozens of Sand Martins darting about in front of the holey cliff at RSPB Minsmere, viewable from the cafe table outdoors. The cliff is basically a rocky bank full of small holes and those holes provide these migrant visitors with nest sites for this summer’s breeding. They’ll burrow in, up to a metre or so, and make a chamber lined with vegetation and feathers as a nest at the end of the tunnel. The Sand Martin, Riparia riparia, is a small and understated bird, it’s fifty shades of brown with a dusky white breast and a brown band high up on the breast. They lack the glossy, blue sheen, scarlet face, and long tail streamers of their larger Swallow cousins, but are just as wonderful to see. Like the Swallow and other hirundines as well as distant cousins the Swifts, they take insects on the wing for food. Sand Martin snapped at 1/4000s from about 25 metres away and cropped. f/7.1 ev=0, ISO 2000. 500mm zoom Sand Martins are quite high-speed frequent flyers and…