We watched them build their nest over the next two weeks. They worked so very hard from early morning until the evening, stopping only when the sun was at its hottest, bringing in the mud a mouthful at a time. Even though a stream runs nearby we saw that they flew to the banks of the River Danube for their mud which is about a kilometre round trip.

Eventually the nest was completed and we waited in anticipation for the hen to lay her eggs. About two days after they had finished we noticed that a cock sparrow was hanging around. He began to make a dreadful noise and flew frantically from hedge to hedge when the martins approached their nest. Over the next few days the sparrow was constantly in attendance and he was getting bolder by the hour until he eventually started to hang on the wall beside the nest. But, it did not stop there, he got brave enough to go into the nest when the martins were absent and finally he went into the nest when the martins were in residence and pushed them out.

He was such a bully that if we went onto the veranda he began to chatter at us as he really thought we should not be there either. We tried to frighten him off and we began to hate that small noisy bird so much that we used a water spray in an attempt to chase him off. We had become very fond of our martins and felt very protective towards them but our efforts were in vain and nothing would make him leave.

Eventually our martins must have realised they would have no peace and moved away to find another nesting site. The nest stood empty for a few days but the sparrow still came around and went into the nest to see if the martins had sneaked an egg in while he was off duty, but of course it remained empty.

Then, one evening a couple of martins flew into the nest again and we wondered if they were going to have another attempt at making it their home but a few minutes later four more arrived and they also disappeared into the nest. They all began squabbling and when one or two got pushed out we realised that these were not pairs of martins but most likely young ones and they were using it for a night club. We tolerated it for a couple of evenings but they made such a lot of noise we decided once and for all we would put a stop to it.

My husband pushed a sock into the entrance of the nest and after the sparrow had pulled and poked it and made sure that nobody could get inside he also disappeared. We removed the nest in the autumn and decided that we would not encourage any to build the following year as we were sure the sparrow would give them no peace.

Strangely enough, last year, although we saw the house martins circling the house and darting around the skies catching insects, none made an attempt to build a nest on the veranda. Perhaps they were warned off by the bully.