Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Swifts need our help

1235714

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    wow fantastic. I must contact them to ask if they are using the attraction CD


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 419 ✭✭Traonach


    Brillant stuff by the Church of Ireland lads in Bantry:) Hopefully other churchs could do likewise.


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    Does anyone live close to Bantry? These people need wider publicity and links to there web cam

    I'd like to know more about nest box type, how many etc but 330 miles is too far to go for a look myself. Maybe they have a web site of their own?

    Mark


  • Registered Users Posts: 320 ✭✭thebishop


    They not using a caller C.D as there are Swifts using both the Church and the school for nesting for years, but there are only a few places on both buildings suitable for nesting.There are four nestboxes on the Church and two on the school for this year to see how things go. The camera is not going to be fitted this year as its not known which box will be used if any.The nest boxes were bought on line.Its a local fellow thats doing it with the blessing of the Canon.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3 Crumlin Antrim


    Great to hear of the swift boxes being erected in Bantry.We now have swift boxes from Bantry to Ballycastle.I know Bantry very well having spent many summers there in the fifties ,my father was from Skibbereen and i still have cousins living in Bantry.
    I wonder if the swift colony still exists at the Eccles Hotel in Glengariff.
    We in Northern Ireland are also doing our best for swifts ,you may have read the article i wrote for Bird Watch Ireland Wings ,you are not alone there are now swift boxes in Tubbbercurry Co Sligo, in Castlebar ,at Johnstown Castle Co Wexford and other locations in the midlands and the south.
    We are now erecting swift towers here and mini swift towers for gardens like the purple martin houses in Nr America.
    At my house in Crumlin Co Antrim i have twenty four breeding pairs and other members of the Northern Ireland Swift Group have large colonies in Antrim and Belfast ,one of our members was responsible for saving probably the largest colony in Nr Ireland .Keep up the fantastic work.
    Brian Cahalane. Crumlin Co Antrim.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 320 ✭✭thebishop


    Yea there is still Swifts in the Eccles Hotel, usualy arrive on the 5th or 6th of May. There are a couple of pairs that nest in the Church in Glengarriff too.Theres a pair that nest in a house in bantry which is a very low nest site,its only about 10 ft high.Hope it never gets a PVC facia fitted.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3 Crumlin Antrim


    Eould it be possible to know who has done the fantastic work in Bantry as i would like to discuss a few common factors with them.
    Brian Cahalane Save our Swifts Group.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,717 ✭✭✭LostCovey


    Eould it be possible to know who has done the fantastic work in Bantry as i would like to discuss a few common factors with them.
    Brian Cahalane Save our Swifts Group.

    The brilliant thing about the Swift initiatives is that people are doing something tangible and immediate about the issue, and spending their time and resources on the actual projects, not on vanity websites.

    Great work, hope your success continues.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 419 ✭✭Traonach


    LostCovey wrote: »
    The brilliant thing about the Swift initiatives is that people are doing something tangible and immediate about the issue, and spending their time and resources on the actual projects, not on vanity websites.

    Great work, hope your success continues.
    x2
    They certainly get their message out. I was in a bird hide in Loch Garten Scotland last year and what was on the main message board in the hide, only the Save our Swifts project details.:)


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    That would be from Concern for Swifts, Scotland www.concernforswifts.com/

    Mark


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 3 Crumlin Antrim


    Swifts are back in numbers saw about 100 feeding yesterday at lough neagh, about ten back at my colony ,first on the 25th two boxes have both pairs back which is quite early.


  • Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭jmkennedyie


    Thanks to Mark for his earlier advice.

    Happy to report 5 swift boxes were opened for business in the tower of the Abbey in Clane last weekend. See 'Saving Clane Swifts' article here for more pics and details: http://clanecommunity.ie/

    021.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Is that wood stain rather than protim on the boxes?


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    well done to all who were involved! Great to see you, and a few others, are leading the way in Ireland

    Mark


  • Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭jmkennedyie


    Is that wood stain rather than protim on the boxes?

    It's just a water based woodstain. Ronseal I think. There's the odd drip inside the tower.


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    Here's my swift spying set up.

    16 swift nest box cameras can be watched and recorded in real time. The system can be set up to record when a bird moves in a nest box.

    Some of the cameras need to be levelled because I moved them while attaching camera cables


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,324 ✭✭✭Cork boy 55


    what do swifts eat?


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    what do swifts eat?

    I'm sure it varies a bit from location to location but it's insects ranging in size from a few mm up to honey bees and hoverflies.

    A couple of years back I sent droppings from my swift chicks to be analysed for insect remains. The results were
    Chironomids 25.7% - non biting midges e.g. Lough Neagh fly
    Aphids 18.0% - greenfly, blackfly
    Psyllids 11.6% - sap sucking insects
    Lonchoptera 11.5% - small spear-winged flies
    Coleoptera 11.1% - water beetles
    Phoridae 0.8% - hump-backed flies (resembling fruit flies)
    Sciaridae 0.7% - fungus gnats
    Dolichopodidae 0.4% - long-legged flies
    Muscids / Calliphorids 0.4% - house / stable / blow flies
    Scathophagidae 0.3% - dung flies
    Hemiptera 2.1% - bugs
    Tipulid 0.1% - craneflies

    with traces of
    Hymenoptera - small solitary wasps
    Coccinellidae - 11 spot ladybird


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,156 ✭✭✭cubix


    Was looking at house martin nest cups today with the view to ordering some. Will house martins and swifts live side by side under the eves of a house. Also
    how noisey are they at night as I was thinking of putting them under the eves at the front of the house N/East above the kids bedrooms. Also are swifts more/less/ the same with regards to the mess they make on the ground below there nest box.

    I think I read on here somewhere, that someone had noticed lots bird boxes (bluetit/sparrow type) in trees in radom places miles from anywhere and it turned out the goverment/Eu gave grants to farmers ect to put them up. Is there anything like this for swifts/housemartins etc.

    Is there any groups in Dublin organising erection (FOC) of swift boxes for people that are willing to have them. Another words they buy the boxes but dont have the means (ladder/man power) to get them up.


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    Cubix, swifts make very little or no mess and recycle most of their chicks droppings. They are silent at night.

    I've heard house martins twittering softly at night especially when they have chicks.

    Mark


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 2,156 ✭✭✭cubix


    Thanks;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,168 ✭✭✭secman


    We had a mud nest in the apex of our roof last summer, the amount of bird **** was unbelievable. a light fitting on the wall about 2 feet under the nest was caked in inches of bird ****. It took me ages to clean it with a power washer. The pathway under the nest was constantly covered in bird **** and I had to park my car elsewhere, fed up washing the bird **** off it. The mooto of the story , they are lovely on someone else's house !


    Secman


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    Secman send your house martins my way. Mine failed to return several years ago. No real mess at my house when they were here because I cleaned it away daily


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    This evening around 6pm the first of my swifts arrived in its nest box

    Mark
    N Ireland


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    At 21.11 and 21.26 another two arrived home


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    Good numbers of swifts in my area now.

    In my boxes I now have two pairs and two singles. On average the swifts are 4.8 days late

    Mark


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    Are you trying to attract swifts? It's now time to play your CD lure to attract breeding age swifts


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 419 ✭✭Traonach


    CD lure playing as we speak:D


  • Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭swifts need our help!


    brilliant!


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 3,730 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    I'll have to wait until next weekend


Advertisement