Author: Rachael Murray, Communications Officer, Eastern England Regional Office (EERO)
I don't know about you but I love this time of year, when the grey skies give way to a more confident blue and I get the growing feeling that spring has settled in, and summer truly could be a possibility! It’s around about now that we welcome well known summer migrants back to our shores, including screaming tangles of soot black swifts.
As they soar enthusiastically into our neighbourhoods as if our island were a great big airport terminal, I feel a great sense of freedom, experienced vicariously through their playful loops and aerial tricks. Their agile flight is unsurprising, as swifts spend most of their time on the wing and even sleep whilst in the air!
Swift in flight Credit: Mark Thomas (RSPB)
However, as their joyful sound resonates across our towns and villages, after an incredible 3,000 mile journey from Africa, swifts arrive to face a housing crisis here in the UK. Swifts have declined by an alarming 38% since 1995 and are now an amber-listed species on the list of Birds of Conservation Concern. Whilst we don’t know the exact cause of their decline, the loss of nest sites in the UK is likely to be at least partly responsible.
The good news is that if you are going to have company for the whole of the summer, you couldn’t get better house guests than swifts. If they were to answer a ‘housemates wanted’ ad they would be very clean, stay only 12 weeks per year and be very helpful in getting rid of mosquitoes and other flying insects.
When they arrive back in the UK they return to the exact same location year after year. Swifts like to nest in the rooftops of old buildings but renovation and development often destroys suitable sites.
Their nests are minimal, made from stuff they collect in the air, such as feathers, paper, straw, hay and seeds. These materials are cemented with saliva and used to build a nest in open eaves, under loose roof tiles and in holes in walls.
Here at the RSPB we have a team of conservation officers that encourage planners, developers and statutory bodies in the East to incorporate swift friendly features into new developments. We recommend the use of special ‘swift bricks’, which are simple brick like structures swifts can nest in that are built into buildings.
However, you don’t have to work for a conservation organisation to do your bit. To keep swifts the poster boys and girls for summer here in the UK, we can all do something to help.
What you can do to help swifts this summer