NESTING areas on Teesside are being spruced up ready for migrating visitors from Africa.
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust wardens have been brought in to make the site, a collapsed section of river bank, more appealing to the a colony of sand martins.
A sign of summer, the brown and white birds spend much of their time airborne, hunting for insects over lakes and rivers.
Three years ago a colony spent the summer near the Tees Barrage, Stockton. Their nest holes have become overgrown so Tees Corridor wardens have been cutting back the vegetation.
"We were excited when the sand martins began to show interest in this section of river bank a few years ago. Now the colony is the only one found downstream of the Tees Barrage,'' said Bill Ashton-Wickett, the trust's nature reserve project officer. "It's the least we can do for the birds who will be arriving shortly from their West African wintering grounds."
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