CORK’S Lough is to soon welcome a colony of sand martins in a specially built new home.

The much-loved Lough is already home to a number of different species of birds, but will now house the newest inhabitant in a purpose-built birdhouse on the island.

The birds, who spend their winters in the southern Sahara before migrating back to Ireland, will experience a replica of the migratory bird’s natural breeding habitat upon their return to Cork.

The timber hide has round holes cut into it. These resemble the holes or crevices in the walls along the city quay or banks of rivers, where the sand martins typically nest.

The new birdhouse is modelled on a similar project at the Harper’s Island wetlands near Glounthaune, which was built by the Glounthaune Men’s Shed group last year.

The Glounthane hide features 24 holes which were fully occupied by several sand martins not long after its installation in the wetlands.

The project comes thanks to the Green Spaces for Health Group in cooperation with Cork City Council.

For the past few weeks, Green Spaces for Health have been joined by a team of bird experts and volunteers from Glounthane Men’s Shed, who have successfully housed the birds in their Harper’s Island location.

David Byrne, a carpenter with Cork City Council’s parks division, and Pat Carroll, the caretaker at the Lough have been busy building rowing to and from the island to install the house specially designed for sand martins.

When completed, an audio lure will be installed in the Lough’s hide to call the sand martins to their new home. Once inside it’s hoped the birds will mate and produce new generations of sand martins from The Lough colony.