The nation was called upon to help the RSPB safeguard the future of our exciting summer visitor, the swift, and as usual, you all delivered.
A nationwide plea for swift sightings resulted in data being gathered on a scale never seen before and revealed the critical role that Britain’s householders play in the future of this declining species. The story struck a real chord and was covered in the Independent, on the BBC and elsewhere – we are clearly a nation of swift lovers!
Thousands of people reported the unmistakable screams of swifts around their roofs last summer to the RSPB, or told us where they were actually nesting. We wanted to develop a detailed ‘inventory’ of specific locations that swifts are using to raise their families so it can focus efforts to help the species.
Almost all swifts recorded were found nesting on buildings and over three quarters of them (77%), found nesting in houses. The results from the first year of data collection show that the swift strongholds are in older parts of our cities, towns and villages, although they will use new buildings too.
Swift numbers have declined significantly in recent years. It’s not yet clear why, but we think that many suffer as a result of the loss of nest sites through building improvement or demolition.
Of course home renovations and maintenance often need to be carried out, but hopefully a heightened awareness of the possibility of nesting swifts means we can all improve our homes without destroying those of the swift.
I have lived in my house since 1972 and swifts have always had a nest site on each of the two adjoining houses opposite. Last year, to my horror, about a week before the fledglings were due to leave the nests, one of the houses had scaffolding erected which impeded the swift parents from both nests. I immediately spoke to the men erecting the scaffolding, explaining that swifts were a protected species, but all they wanted to know was what was the fine! The owner of the house had been informed by a neighbour previously that swifts had nested in his eaves for decades, but was singularly unimpressed with this piece of information. Unfortunately my local council does not have a Wildlife officer to register sites and oversee Planning applications. The local police wildlife officer, whom I had contacted, knew nothing about swifts. He looked in the garden for a nest! The RSPB visited within 24 hours and talked to the owner of the property in question who claimed he had urgent repairs to do to the roof due to a leak. All absolute nonsense, of course. It was a complete loft renovation. Both sets of fledglings perished and I had to watch two sets of parents frantically searching for their nests, even trying the next pair of adjoining houses in such an agitated state that I feared they would crash into the building and be killed.
I subsequently put up a nest box but this year has been a very bad year for the swifts, who arrived very late and then had strong winds to contend with. I saw a pair mating on 20th May but they do not appear to be using either my nest box or the one remaining nest site on one house opposite. All very sad and it does prove the need for a system of identification by local councils (especially the Planning departments) in order that they can inform the owners of properties of their responsibilities.