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Editorial – February 2009

There is a surprise in store this spring for house martins returning to the village of Charminster near Dorchester, Dorset.: custom-built new homes provided by a local construction company.

The birds are famous for their migrations, which see them flying south to Africa for the winter before returning to the UK in spring and heading for their old nesting sites.

In Charminster, craftsmen from Hearn Roofing who were working on a series of houses at the northern end of the village had to knock off a whole series of martins' nests - and felt so bad about it that they decided to create new ones.

The firm turned to the Dorset Wildlife Trust, who referred them to Davog McCloskey of the Dorset Ecological Consultancy for specific advice. Hearn Roofing's workers have now just finished installing the bird boxes that he recommended.

The firm had been working on the North Street houses for Magna Housing. Hearn Group managing director Shaun Hearn said: "We originally started the job in April, but when we got the scaffolding up the guys saw that there were a lot of martins' nests, and it was just at the time when the birds were coming back.

"So we took the scaffolding back down, and left the job until the birds had gone again, in the autumn. But we had to knock off the nests when we started doing the work, and we thought we ought to do what we could to make up for it.

"The birds are well known for coming back to the same place each year, and we didn't want them to be having to start building from scratch.

"The boxes are up now, in plenty of time for the spring. We've put them up in pairs, because martins like to have neighbours."

THAT wasn't the end of the wildlife story, however. The new roofs on the Charminster houses also have provision for bats - because when the roofers were stripping off the old roofs they found that bats had made their homes in some of the small gaps under the ridge tiles.

So work stopped again while Hearn Roofing went back to the Dorset Wildlife Trust for more advice. In conjunction with local bat warden Paul Comer they arrived at a method of finishing the new roof in such a way that small voids would be left so the bats - pipistrelles - would be able to return and roost in much the same places.

Ian Pollock said: "Our guys are briefed about what to look out for in terms of wildlife while they're doing their job, and it's really nice to know that it's working, and we're doing all we can."

INFO:
Bats are in decline and are a European protected species.
If building work is likely to affect a known bat site, the law demands that a survey first be undertaken and a licence obtained.
It is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take a bat, or to damage or destroy any place that a bat uses for shelter or protection.

The potential fine for each offence is £5,000. If more than one bat is involved, the fine is £5,000 per bat.
An offender can also be imprisoned for up to six months.