THERE are two birds in the Highlands that are more or less restricted to nesting in the banks of rivers and burns.
One of them is the small, and rather nondescript, sand martin. The other is not much larger but is often reckoned by many people to be the most attractive bird we have the in the UK, the kingfisher.
The sand martin is by far the most common of the two, although whilst its range runs mainly up the east coast to Caithness and some away long the north coast, it is still relatively uncommon.
I always think of sand martins as being the harbingers of spring as much as the swallow and cuckoo. Perhaps this is because they are normally the first of the small migrants to return from Africa. How eagerly I scan the lochs such as Loch Flemington to the east of Inverness for these first birds of the year.
They nest in colonies that down south may run into hundreds of pairs, although in the Highlands they are much smaller - in tens rather than hundreds. The holes that they excavate are between 35-119cm with a chamber at the end that contains grass and feathers. These are normally in a bank of a river or burn but sometimes in a sandy bank not too far from water.
Family life for these colonies may not always be straightforward, although in general both birds incubate the eggs and both feed the young. In a good year, weatherwise and foodwise, a second brood may be reared. If the survival of the first brood is poor, the female may leave the male to feed the young. She may pair with a new male and start a second family. Males, too, may change mates after the young have become independent.
When I was a bird ringer, one of the first birds I studied in any detail was the sand martin and I used to ring them at a very large colony in a sandpit some distance from any water. I had some recoveries abroad from the rings and also caught a small number of birds that had been ringed elsewhere, including on the continent.
In the Highlands there are colonies on the side of rivers whilst one small colony of only half a dozen pairs was on the side of a barrow burn near Golspie.
The main problem with the sand martin breeding sites in the Highlands is the rapid spates on some rivers and burns that can wash out the holes and drown the young still in the burrows.
Such was the fate of a colony only a couple of miles from me earlier this year when the River Nairn rose rapidly and burst its banks.
There were about 60 nests and the river rose very rapidly and in many parts broke through banks and flooded fields. We believe a few of the sand martins may have already have flown but the majority were washed out or drowned in their burrows. I felt so helpless in not being able to do anything to help.
Most years they seem to get away with it but this year was a disaster. It will be interesting to see if the birds come back again to breed next year.
The other hole nesting bird is the kingfisher and these are very rare breeding birds in the Highlands.
For breeding they need wide rivers that even in spate do not flood too badly and the river at Contin is sometimes favoured by them.
For some reason, one of the places to see kingfishers is the area associated with the Merkinch Local Nature Reserve, on the western edge of Inverness.
Despite their very colourful plumage, the kingfisher still often goes unnoticed although the loud shrill call notes sometimes give them away.
They suffer the same fate as sand martins when rivers and burns are in spate.
l The highlight of the week for me was to see a small group of wild goats on a hillside. They were all nannies or this year's kids, although there was a young billy with them.
It was the length of its horns that gave the billy away and I wondered just what type they would be when they grew. Some of the billies have horns that curve backwards but are parallel, whilst others spread wide. The latter are reputed to come originally from the Spanish ibex.
You can age the billies by the annual growth rings of the horns. As I write, there is a set of horns below one of my bookcases and they are from the Isle of Rum and are of this spreading type. How such billies manage when going through woodland is a mystery to me.
The goats on the hillside looked relaxed and calm and were all lying down. Perhaps they were waiting for the far-ranging billies who will join them soon for the autumn rut. Then they will be a sight as the billies rise up on their hind legs and crash down, butting each other with their huge horns. Perhaps the gap in one of the horns of the Isle of Rum billy was from such a confrontation.
I often wonder at the source of such goats as they were originally supposed to be brought in during Neolithic period. It is a sad reflection on our times that there are now fewer wild goats in the Highlands than there have been for centuries as in recent years they have been persecuted by ill-informed people.
