Norstone AS - HeidelbergCement

Objective

To make a bird hotel for sand martins, thereby keeping them away from the storage heaps with aggregates for sale.

Context

Norstone Tau Quarry produces more than 2 million tons of aggregates every year. Earlier the storage heaps of fine sand was a popular nesting place for sand martins. This meant the heaps were being contaminated by bird droppings, while the birds lived at risk of being removed by quarry machines.

Solution

200 tons of crushed fines were transported to a suitable shelf in the abandoned part of the quarry. An excavator packed the sand dense and hard. The wall was made steep in order to keep predators away. 289 holes were made, which today each house by average four sand martins.

Result

There is now not one single bird nest in the storage heaps. The number of sand martins has increased from 20-50 couples a season to 300. It is unusual for the sand martins to choose machine crushed sand. If the numbers continues to increase, Norstone AS will make more “hotel rooms”.

The project is completed, Norstone AS built a complete biodiversity park where “Sand Martin hotels” were a large part of the plan. Wild bees have used the park and natural inhabitants have started the natural process of succession but the Sand Martin needs to progressively adapt to this new park.