New Life

On returning home yesterday I picked up some fragments of eggshell beneath our House Martin nest. They are tiny, soft and fragile.

I am reading “Guests of Summer - a House Martin love story” by the Dutch ornithologist Theunis Piersma, It’s a great read.

So I now know:
* a typical clutch is four or five eggs, which get laid in the morning, one a day
* for the first four or five days the chicks are bald, so need constant incubation
* chicks initially weigh one gram. In one week they grow to ten grams, and all being well by three weeks they reach twenty four grams
* during the next two weeks their weight will reduce to seventeen grams, by which time (assuming good weather) they are ready to fly and lead their own lives
* House Martins are well adapted to bad weather in summer. Which has to be a good thing this year.

I also learn that Ian Fleming borrowed the name of an American ornithologist friend (with his permission) for his eponymous MI6 agent.
James Bond - licensed to spot birds.