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Swifts need our help

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


    thanks


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,170 ✭✭✭wildlifeboy


    swift nest in my eaves/attic. its obviously a late one. i can hear the chicks. funny thing is i dont know where the parents are taking the plops. its in a hole at the end of it so not the stereotypical quadrant shape on the side of the house. fyi this is the same swift i rescued from the pond about a month ago and let dry out and fly away. i think she nested there to thank me. either way its nice.


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


    adult swifts recycle chick droppings by eating them

    Mark


  • Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭Ulmus


    This swift blog by Cambridge academic Clarke Brunt might be of interest.

    http://www.viridis.net/animals/swifts.html


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


    thanks for the link

    Mark


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


    Swift sightings have been good in the north

    April 14th first report of a swift in N Ireland at Richill, Co. Armagh

    April 16thtwo swifts reported at Oxford Island nature reserve

    April 17th Swift reported at the RSPB harbour reserve

    April 25th
    50+ swifts seen at Oxford Island nature reserve

    April 26th 15 swifts seen over Lough Erne County Fermanagh

    April 27th three swifts fly by the gable. First swifts seen around the house in previous years (3/5/12), (1/5/11), (23/4/10)

    There is a new way to attract swifts that is less bulky than a hifi or CD player
    http://saveourswifts.co.uk/attractswifts.htm


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


    Biodiversity week starts on May 18th - I think - and because of that I got an email from someone who works for Galway City Council. They want to do something for swifts.


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


    Still haven't seen, or heard, any in Enniscorthy yet - they must have taken the long way round to the North. :D


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


    They will be feeding over lakes. The main body wont be here for another week or 10 days


  • Registered Users Posts: 27 Clap your handsay yeah


    Hey guys I am thinking of putting up maybe 3 nest boxes for swifts on the gable end of the house and I'd like to know do the swifts cause much of a mess if I was lucky enough to attract them?
    My neighbour keeps his car in his drive about 20 - 30 ft away and keeps it in immaculate condition and I'd hate to have him complaining if it got covered in bird droppings :) It's pretty windy by the side of our house too


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


    We always tell people swifts leave little or no mess. The adults recycle everything by eating it. First the chick is fed - first to the adult gets the food. In early days the adult shares the bolus of insects. If swifts nest in a box/natural place with a vertical entry hole the chick at three weeks of age can back up to the hole and shoot the poop out of the entrance.

    If swifts nest in a hole with a horizontal entrance all poop stays in the nest

    Are you buying or making? Its vital the entrance hole is no more than 65mm wide and 30mm high. This keeps Starlings out.

    Swifts will fight over a nest so I suggest you start with 3 side by side without gaps

    To attract swifts you have to play the sounds and song of swifts
    http://saveourswifts.co.uk/attractswifts.htm

    Your local wood yard can cut all the sizes you need
    http://saveourswifts.co.uk/nest-sites-home-made.htm


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


    Anyone in Galway city or area? I might be giving a lecture on May 23rd or 24th


  • Registered Users Posts: 27 Clap your handsay yeah


    Ah thats good news about the droppings, I'll be making my own probably based on the design you have linked to there thanks, hopefully I can get 3 of them up as you said see how things get on.


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


    The first swift arrived back in its box at 7.30pm today after 9 months of non stop flying


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


    There are now three swifts home. Happy days


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


    and now there are 7.

    Did any of you have swifts show an interest in your boxes last year? They should be back soon


  • Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭jmkennedyie


    Alas no interest in my boxes last year but south facing entrance and awkward approach through louvres. Have turned on the CD again this year and will see how it goes.

    But when a large building re-roofing project happens I will be able to install a more conventional sheltered set of boxes with a straightforward approach - should be a much safer bet.


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


    and photos Jim? Swifts easily can access louvres

    We are using different lures from this year and different players. The volume is unbelievable. Mine is hardly on and its deafening
    http://saveourswifts.co.uk/attractswifts.htm

    From the Dutch site download tracks 1, 5, 6 which are screaming swifts and duetting swifts. In between add the minute of silence. You'll have to change the track titles to track 1, 2 3 ... Repeat again and away you go


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


    Large arrival of swifts in the last couple of days


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


    Anyone in Galway city or close by?

    I'm give a lecture on swifts in Galway city hall next Friday 24th. It starts at 7pm


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭ThunderCat


    Saw my first swift of the year today. Balbriggan, Co.Dublin.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,319 ✭✭✭Half-cocked


    Spotted my first one of the year over Santry, Co Dublin today.


  • Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭Ulmus


    Have been playing swifts' CD and had 4 swifts near my flat this morning, hoping they'll use the Schwegler boxes. Using a Tesco micro hifi CD player with the speakers placed on top of opened sash window frame. Will have to upgrade to the amp system from the Save our Swifts website.


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


    Many people are changing their way to attract swifts. The Dutch calls are all great quality

    Swifts will be drawn to your window and the boxes. Can you get a speaker beside, below or between the nest boxes?

    http://saveourswifts.co.uk/attractswifts.htm


  • Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭Ulmus


    I'll order online the upgrade to the Cheng Sheng amplifier-linked speaker system as per your website and place it below one of the swift boxes. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime I'll use the indoor hifi speakers from the open window.


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


    You could save/burn the files to a CD


  • Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭jmkennedyie


    and photos Jim? Swifts easily can access louvres

    We are using different lures from this year and different players. The volume is unbelievable. Mine is hardly on and its deafening
    http://saveourswifts.co.uk/attractswifts.htm

    From the Dutch site download tracks 1, 5, 6 which are screaming swifts and duetting swifts. In between add the minute of silence. You'll have to change the track titles to track 1, 2 3 ... Repeat again and away you go
    Cheers.

    Sorry, no close-up pics handy but the entrances are lined up with the missing wooden panels in the top right window here:
    http://clanecommunity.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_4901.jpg.

    For anyone interested Pics of the boxes from inside the tower here: http://clanecommunity.ie/2012/05/saving-clane-swifts/


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


    Looks great! Are the entrances lines up with the top edge of the louvres so the swifts when prospecting can land on the louvre and shuffle in?

    who wrote the text and took the photos? I'd like to add it to our web site


  • Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭jmkennedyie


    yep, holes aligned, and I wrote the text/took the pics. You are welcome to link/recycle.
    - JK


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


    Thanks.

    When I asked if they are aligned I should have asked if they are aligned with the upper edge of the louvre and not the under side


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