Housemartins

The law says that active nests cannot be destroyed or removed. I should imagine it would be OK if they are not occupied or have eggs in them especially at this time of year when they are not around.

See European Commission Birds Directive Article 1.

Thank you very much.  Mine are active ad they come back twice a year. I imagine but if you remove them when they are not there, someone could report you. I don't know what to do.😯

Wish we had housemartens! They are lovely wee birds. They are flying from south of the Sahara desert to come back to your house to nest there. And they feed on insects, including mosquitoes. Can you live and let live with the mess? 

Yes, I love the birds,  and don't want to cause them any harm.  But there are 4 nests and it really is horrible to look at mess down the walls and all over the tiles. I'm sure I will have to live with it!!

Put a cardboard box on the floor underneath the nests. Then you can change them when they get too messy. These are beautiful birds.

I agree that they are lovely and look forward to them arriving every spring. However, they can be messy, so you should remove them if you wish when they are not in use. Many people have done this as evidenced by the rings left behind where they were attached to the building

Incidentally, I have just cleared out an old sparrows nest or nests which completely filled the exhaust pipe from my gas boiler. These nests are far more dangerous as the material could ignite whilst being exposed to the hot exhaust gasses and even worse, not allow the fumes to escape so filling your home with Carbon Monoxide, an odourless and silent killer

From Everack in Almoradi, I bought an additional "cage" which fits inside the existing cowl. Very easy to install from inside the property so is suitable for everyone, even those who live sevaral floors up