Home for the Summer - Sand Martin at Attenborough NR, 27/03/17

Sand Martin, Riparia riparia, investigating one of the artificial nesting walls designed for the species at Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire.

@Maguari Do they actually use these holes? There's a similar setup on a reserve near me and I'm told they don't use it because they like to excavate their own holes.

Who is this reserve named after?

It looks as though the holes may been refilled in the photo, could that be the answer Pertinax? they can then dig them out again.
nice shot M

They do indeed - and were coming and going very actively yesterday. There are a few Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire reserves with these and they seem well-used - there's one at Carr Vale in Bolsover that was very busy last year and my local reserve at Avenue Washlands installed a new one last year.

Attenborough is simply the suburb of Nottingham where the reserve is located - with no link, to my knowledge, to any specific illustrious person.

@dean Thanks!

@Maguari Maybe they should fill the holes in on my local sandmartin wall then (or maybe they already have....)

Strange coincidence of the names- he gets all sorts named after him these days....