Sand Martin - 1894

Cotile riparia

A common summer visitor.

The Sand Martins were generally first seen some day in the last week of March, flying about Welshhook Bridge, below our house. They were always abundant, perhaps more so even than the Swallows, nesting in banks and in the sides of gravel pits and old quarries. Owing to the want of suitable nesting places Mr. Dix failed to observe this species in his district, writing : " I have only once seen this bird, where four or five were skimming over the river by Cardigan Bridge."

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands