Swifts need our help

swifts need our help!

This morning one of my single birds has persuaded a new mate to enter it's nest box. This bird could have been flying for the last few years and it must take great courage to enter a dark hole in a buildings.

I'll add three videos that were taken this morning. I can only upload one at a time.

1. the birds are uneasy with each other
2. 30 minutes later trying to allopreen
3. 2 hours later they are cosy side by side on the nest hollow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THR5Qqx8TT0

swifts need our help!

hopefully they will return next year and breed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyYwJmt9J7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1lPNl5yl0

donal2000

Good footage

How long typically would non-breeding Swifts spend overnight in the box?

swifts need our help!

donal2000 wrote: »

Good footage
How long typically would non-breeding Swifts spend overnight in the box?

Thanks Donal.

So far non of this years non breeders have stayed over night in their boxes. They leave between 10.30pm and 10.45pm. Breeders come in around 10.45 these nights and are gone at first light. The non breeders return around 7am two hours after sunrise. They must go to feed before continuing chasing mates and 'kissing'.

donal2000

swifts need our help! wrote: »

Thanks Donal.

So far non of this years non breeders have stayed over night in their boxes. They leave between 10.30pm and 10.45pm. Breeders come in around 10.45 these nights and are gone at first light. The non breeders return around 7am two hours after sunrise. They must go to feed before continuing chasing mates and 'kissing'.

Cool. When can we expect them to leave on their migration South?

swifts need our help!

all too soon! By the end of the month most will be gone

four18

Hiya ! very interesting thread, I came across this site a few yrs back, some facinating facts on it. Good luck with your efforts all.

http://www.commonswift.org/common_swift.html

swifts need our help!

thanks!

A guy called Ulrich owns that fab swift web site

swifts need our help!

Fight turns to love!

a fight due to mistaken identity. Males only fight mles and females fight females

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xoovoFCx6s

After 4 hours they are happy to sit side by side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzTmFRoNuI0

swifts need our help!

two swifts have a 'chat' with each other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJp83tzgeOM

swifts need our help!

two days ago I thought swifts had gone and were on their way back to Africa.

This morning about 20 were back doing the rounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFecsDkEiuE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9tBAymx8U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfjedm80eis

swifts need our help!

I'm being interviewed today around 2pm on LMFM. I'll be on Gerry Kelly's programme. http://www.lmfm.ie/

The subject will be bird migration on which I'm not an expert but hopefully I can swing it around to swifts

Mark
N Ireland

swifts need our help!

Bumping this up to the top

Anyone interested in doing something for swifts this year?

Mark

E39MSport

Wouldn't mind actually but I'm in a bungalow with no gables so I'm not sure where I could place a box other than the chimney ?

I see the odd swift passing the house during the season.

swifts need our help!

a chimney would be ok if the clearence below is 3 to 4m and clutter free

E39MSport

swifts need our help! wrote: »

a chimney would be ok if the clearence below is 3 to 4m and clutter free

The chimney itself is only about 1m proud of the roof but of course it's a good 20 feet or so from ground level.

That good enough?

swifts need our help!

yes that's plenty

swifts need our help!

The first swifts due back in Ireland in a week to 10 days and in three weeks they should be a common site again.

Is anyone going to help them this year by putting up nest boxes?

Mark
http://saveourswifts.co.uk/

Traonach

I was late putting my nest box last year so unfortunately didn't get any nesting swifts. This year I'm ready. I'll be blasting out my tape lure at dawn from mid- may. I've trimmed the whitethorn hedge underneath the nest-box ( a normally sacrilegious act for me). Hopefully I will be lucky this year.

swifts need our help!

Good luck for this year

You have a great location - sounds great

Location: A field of nettles, yellow iris, cowparsley

E39MSport

Traonach wrote: »

I was late putting my nest box last year so unfortunately didn't get any nesting swifts. This year I'm ready. I'll be blasting out my tape lure at dawn from mid- may. I've trimmed the whitethorn hedge underneath the nest-box ( a normally sacrilegious act for me). Hopefully I will be lucky this year.

Can I ask what kit you will be using to 'blast' the lure please ?

( I have yet to put mine up - time is a killer - hopefully next Friday/Sat )

Traonach

E39MSport wrote: »

Can I ask what kit you will be using to 'blast' the lure please ?

( I have yet to put mine up - time is a killer - hopefully next Friday/Sat )

Attached on a small pulley to the nest box.

Pull up the speaker to beside nest box. Bought some cheap extension cable to attach onto the CD player which is in the house. Play the CD at maximum sound without distortion.
Mark (Save our Swifts) has a neater set-up than mine, I'm sure he'll post it up.

Don't put your speaker on the ground. I made that mistake last year. A swift heard the lure and was flying around the house looking for the nest site. I'm sure he would have found it if the speaker was beside the nest box. By the time I sorted out the pulley it was too late in the season.

One of the main nest sites in my town have been destroyed, so hopefully they can find my place.

swifts need our help!

I use a car speaker to play the CD lure

First cuckoo reported in the south - sorry cant remember where

Mark

jmkennedyie

swifts need our help! wrote: »

The first swifts due back in Ireland in a week to 10 days and in three weeks they should be a common site again.

Is anyone going to help them this year by putting up nest boxes?

Mark
http://saveourswifts.co.uk/

Hey Mark, yep, have constructed box with 5 nests. To be installed behind louvres (wooden slats?) in an old church tower within the week. One swift pair has nested in eaves of the main part of the building in previous years. Although not ideal, looks like I will have to install on South facing 'window'.

Some questions, sorry if you have already answered them:

• Any recommendations on the nest bowl to put into each box?
• Would swifts fly / shuffle up louvres to the nest box entrance hole? The louvres are about 17 cm long. 3 to 4 cm vertical gap between them so concerned a bit of a tight squeeze. Some louvres are missing, so I plan to use one of these gaps to have clear 10 cm space for three of the nest box entrances. Not ideal but removing any of remaining slats may not be allowed.
• I presume bit of plywood etc. to blank off slats with no nestbox behind them would be useful. Plywood to be hung on the internal side of the louvres of course.
• Any recommendations on which CD to use? There seem to be a few options out there.

Thanks a mill.

swifts need our help!

I wonder if the moderator will reinstate the swift thread?

---

well done on your five boxes

Any recommendations on the nest bowl to put into each box?
The nesting hollow/concave will speed up the breeding success once birds move in. It should be positioned at the end opposite the entrance. They will lay their eggs in the hollow and make their nest around the eggs. These are available from most good petshops. They are called budgie concaves. My local pet shop sells them for £1.

Would swifts fly / shuffle up louvres to the nest box entrance hole?
They will probably fly in and land close to or in to the hole. The hole should sit at the top edge of the louvre. This will give the swifts a landing area if needed. The nest entrance should be 30x65mm. This keeps out starlings but not sparrows or tits

I presume bit of plywood etc. to blank off slats with no nestbox behind them would be useful. Plywood to be hung on the internal side of the louvres of course. Yes that OK.

Any recommendations on which CD to use?
The CD can be bought from Swift Conservation for £5
http://www.swift-conservation.org/Shopping!.htm
Ideally the CD should be played all day. I still do. If that cant be done and you have time play it from dawn, lunch, 6ish and late evening for a couple of hours. If that isnt easy then select dawn/early morning up to 10am and last few hours of daylight

Action for Swifts is making A Box of Swifts which does away with the need of a CD player
http://actionforswifts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/box-of-swifts.html#more

Good luck!

swifts need our help!

I meant to ask what town and county this is taking place in? Please take a series of photos to show how you did everything

Mark

jmkennedyie

Thanks for all that...Co. Kildare...will PM you the details. Will post pics when done. Cheers.

swifts need our help!

Thanks

swifts need our help!

Swifts are very early in England this year. At the weekend 30 were seen over Chew Valley Lake which is south of Bristol. They could also be in the south east counties. Keep a look out around large lakes

thebishop

Copied this interesting letter from local newspaper.The SouthernStar.
Delighted to see Swift boxes

at Bantry church and school.

SIR – Whilst travelling
through Bantry town with my
family recently, I was greatly
surprised and delighted to see
that swift boxes (nest boxes
designed for swifts) have recently
been erected under the
eaves of the St Brendan’s
Church of Ireland in the town
square. As a keen naturalist
and a former wildlife scientist
with the Mammals and Birds
Unit at the former Ministry Of
Agriculture in England, this
is of great interest and encouragement
to me.
The swift, a bird somewhat
like the swallow in shape and
form but rather bigger and a
more powerful flyer, once a
fairly common bird in my
youth, due to the increased
building activities of man
causing the removal and destruction
of the ancient buildings
that provided suitable
nest sites and replaced by
modern ones unsuitable for
nesting, all the little crevices
they used are no longer in existence
and being deprived of
these sites they have declined
dramatically in number in recent
decades, sufficient to say
that now they are on the Irish
and European Protected
Species List and therefore are
in tremendous need of protection
and conservation
wherever they are to be found,
and of active encouragement
to recolonise areas in which
they have been lost.
Swifts spend all their lives
on the wing, they eat, sleep
and even mate on the wing.
Contrary to popular belief
swifts do not foul the area beneath
and around their nests,
and they do not seek to enter
in to or nest inside buildings,
preferring instead direct access
outside under the roof of
the chosen building.
Curious as to who had been
responsible for theswift boxes
in Bantry and to how and why
they came to be erected there,
I made a few enquiries and
found out that not only had
they had been erected on St
Brendan’s Church, itself but
also on the Church of Ireland
School, and also that a webcam
is to be erected in one of
the nest boxes at the school
connected to the Internet so
that the children of the school
and people all over Ireland
and the world can access the
activity live in the nest.
Warm and grateful thanks
are extended the Church of
Ireland for the use of their
premises and for their wholehearted
support in embracing
the principle that the Lord has
given us that we are the stewards
of God’s creatures, He
commands us that we both
care for and protect them.
Grateful thanks also to the
people of Bantry town for
their open and wholehearted
support of this project which
may well be the first of its kind
in Ireland, and also to Bantry
Tidy Towns who are ever striving
to promote and further
the cause of wildlife in our
beautiful locality, hoping that
this gets them extra marks in
the tidy towns competition
The purpose of my letter is to
convey my congratulations
and gratitude to those folk involved
for making an effort to
protect and encourage what
is a truly magnificent rare
bird, and to encourage anybody
and everybody who has a
suitable site where these swift
boxes can be erected and accommodated
to do so, maybe
other towns will be encouraged
to consider such a project
in their own towns.
Yours faithfully,
SJ Penney,
Rooska, Bantry