Swift intervention in Ballyclare

Rodney Monteith sent us this inspirational story, written by Sharman Finlay. It will be interesting to see if their prompt intervention will be successful.

8 Filcris Zeist-style boxes and 2 speakers.
Photo Rodney Monteith

Close up of 1 box and a speaker. Photo Rodney Monteith

One could be forgiven for wondering why James Gault and I, Sharman Finlay, were devastated by the demolition in February of a derelict, charmless former supermarket in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland . When you find out that James is a member of Larne RSPB group and I am a member of the Antrim group, and that both of us are keen and active conservationists, perhaps it becomes clearer? The old building was home for many years to nesting swifts and the prospect of the birds returning from their long migration from Africa to find their home was gone filled us with sadness, almost to the point of tears.

Both of us await the annual return of migrating swallows, martins and swifts with eagerness; the turn of the season, the anticipation of longer summer days. My late husband and I had our children primed to spot the birds, rewarding the first sighting. The swifts' joyful screeching overhead as they zoom around like miniature fighter planes is a part of summer; something without which our area and our souls would be bereft.

What to do? Brenda Campbell, the leader of my R.S.P.B. group, immediately agreed that some intervention must be possible and we met in Brown's Coffee Shop to discuss Swift Action to Save our Swifts. Edward McKee, a master craftsman and all-round handyman offered help, as did Rodney Monteith of Greenmount College, an expert with experience in interventions to secure swift habitats. Kate McAllister offered support and ideas too. Plans began to take shape; boxes and callers would be ordered and approaches made to various people.

Attempts to secure funding from the demolition company and developer fell on deaf ears, but Gary Millar of Millar's Butchers, whose premises are very close to the former site, immediately offered to have swift boxes and callers located to the rear of his building and kindly offered to install them himself. Many people looked at me as if I were mad when I explained our plan, but Gary calmly agreed. This offer of doing the installation work removed the substantial charge which would have been levied for the hire of a cherry-picker. Naturally, we queried Health and Safety issues, but Gary was happy to use the services of a friend, a local contractor, Colin Patterson.

The time up to the arrival of the swifts passed very quickly and when I spotted the first swift on the 30th April, I began to get a bit panicky; Gary had been rushed into hospital that weekend; 10 boxes had arrived and 2 callers; Rodney had got the wiring and housing organised for the latter with the assistance of Edward. Was it all going to be in vain? Swift numbers were growing by the day, but my normal joy at watching and listening to their antics was tempered by anxiety. Brenda and I exchanged feverish text messages and liaised with the others. Result!!! Gary was not to be deterred and insisted on holding the ladder while Colin did the installation and 8 Filcris boxes and 2 speakers were in place by the end of the week. Gary's wife, Daphne, also an R.S.P.B. member, is monitoring the speaker system which uses the Kinter amplifier playing an SD memory card, as detailed on the AFS site, to ensure they are working. Needless to say, we have all been inspecting the boxes( from ground level!) and some swifts have been spotted flying very close to them. It is a case of watch these spaces.....

We have had publicity from our 2 local newspapers and hope that people will realise what else, other than a building, is lost when demolition and redevelopment take place.

Pilot Swift City Index Survey – 2013

The RSPB will be running a trial of a survey based on Swift point counts during 2013.  The method involves two 10-minute point counts of flying swift parties at ten or more locations spread across a town, city or village of your choice.  The main aim in 2013 is to trial the point count method and to gather feedback on its practicality. We hope then to conduct some validation surveys in 2014 to assess how point counts relate to the local abundance of breeding swifts, and ultimately to generate a ‘City Index’ of changing swift abundance over time.

Background.  The aim of the pilot fieldwork in 2013 is to test a point count method for recording swifts in towns, cities and villages. The method is a 10-minute point count of screaming and non-screaming swifts conducted twice during the summer. The hope is that we can refine and calibrate this method to produce a measure of change in swift abundance over time for a particular town or city.    

Method.  Locations for point counts should be selected in areas where swifts are known to be active in the evenings, and which provide a good field of view for observing flying swifts. To make the data useful, at least 10 points should be surveyed in any particular town or city and these should be spaced out to ensure no more than two point locations are situated within each 200m x 200m square. You decide exactly where the survey points should be located.

At least TWO counts of 10-minute duration should be conducted at each point location. The first count should be conducted between 16 May & 15 June, and the second between 16 June & 15 July. Counts should last exactly 10 minutes and should be conducted between 17.00 – 21.00 hours (5-9 pm) preferably on dry, still evenings. The observer should keep a chronological record of all flying swifts seen. HIGH FLYING swifts (more than 100m above the ground) should be distinguished from LOW FLYING swifts (within 100m of the ground). Each low flying group of swifts should be recorded as either ‘screaming’ or ‘non-screaming’, and as flying within 50m of the observer or not. Each low flying group is therefore assigned to one of four screaming / distance categories. 

An example recording form is shown below with the information provided by the observer highlighted in blue. On the first survey, the largest count of high flying swifts was 23, and three screaming parties (containing 2, 5 and 2 swifts) flew within 50m of the observer.    

City/Town/Village	Cambridge		Street name / junction	Parkside / Park Terrace
Grid Reference (8 fig)	TL 4547 5832		1 km-square	TL 4558
First survey date:	24 May 2013		Start Time	19.34
Weather conditions*	Temp	Mild	Wind	Still
	Cloud	7/8	Rain	No
Swift Counts	High Flying:		16, 23
Low-flying:	Screamers		Non-screamers
Within 50m observer	2, 5, 2		3
Beyond 50m observer	2, 6		4, 2
Second survey date:	22 June 2013		Start Time	19.03
Weather conditions*	Temp	Warm	Wind	Breezy
	Cloud	1/8	Rain	No
Swift Counts	High Flying:		21, 34
Low Flying:	Screamers		Non-screamers
Within 50m observer	2, 7, 9		2, 3
Beyond 50m observer	3, 5		4, 2

*Temperature: ‘Cool’ (10°C or less); ‘Mild’ (between 10°C & 20°C); ‘Warm’ (20°C or more) 

Wind: Average wind speed: ‘still’ (<10mph), ‘breezy’ (10-20mph) or ‘windy’ (>20mph)

Cloud: Estimate cloud cover to the nearest 1/8 th.  Rain: No rain (‘No’) or some rain (‘Yes’). 

You can download a copy of the form to fill in here (File>Download)

Please return all completed forms either by post to Will Peach, Conservation Science Department, The Lodge, Sandy, Beds SG19 2DL or by email attachment to will.peach@rspb.org.uk

Swift boxes in a garage gable end

Back in 2009, we were contacted by Jacky Gulliver from Thornham in Norfolk for advice in putting Swift boxes into a garage she was having built - this is her story so far. It is another example of doing something aesthetically very pleasing.

Plywood nestbox sits behind the brickwork

THE NESTBOX  

is made from 7mm ply and each is 325 mm long x 205 mm high x 230mm deep.

The box has a hinged back for cleaning etc. 

The front of each box has a piece cut out.  This is the same size as a brick face plus mortar lines and was used as the dummy brick front.   

THE DUMMY BRICK FRONT

The entrance hole, 75mm wide x 30mm high, is positioned to one side of the front and cut about 10mm above the floor line.

To make it look like a brick we just used PVA glue and sprinkled brick dust and bits on it.  Better would be to do the whole Blue Peter thing as you suggested, and give the front a brick colour base coat first.  If the edges are left they can be painted like mortar lines.

Close up of dummy brick front

To fit the front we just screwed a ply floor to it so it sat on the bricks and pushed it up to the box - we have made them a tight fit and this has worked fine so far but possibly screwing the front into side battens would be better as long as this didn't foul the entrance hole.

In one of the lower boxes we have a small cd player and use the remote to turn it on and off.  A bird tried to get in there so we have made that entrance hole inaccessible.

We played the cd as much as possible and certainly whenever we saw Swifts about.  In 2010 birds occasionally looked in and in 2011 there seemed to be more activity and we wondered if they would nest but there was still a lot of work going on here.

In 2012 there was no disturbance near the garage and we were able spend time watching.  Sitting on the front drive, leaning back, feet up, staring with binns at the garage wall can be quite a talking point for neighbours!

Can't tell you how excited we were when we realized birds were actually going in and out.  They go so quickly - if we blinked we'd miss them!

The whole point of the project was of course to help Swifts - how awful to fly all the way back from Africa only to find your home gone - re roofed, building knocked down etc.  BUT we have had so much enjoyment watching for them and what a thrill when a bird interrupts its aerial acrobatics to look in our box - we can't wait to see what happens this year!

Tayside Swift Newsletter

We would like to thank Catherine Lloyd for this contribution

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

Tayside is a region of Scotland with an active group of Swift enthusiasts, and a lot going on. We are pleased to give a plug to their 8 page Newsletter containing a wealth of articles about Swifts and useful stuff for people who want to help Swifts.

The Tayside Biodiversity homepage also has links to much other Swift information, including issue 1 of their newsletter

Gable end nestbox in Norway

We like to see examples of well made, nice looking nest boxes, and here is an example designed and built by Johnny Reitan from Molde, which is quite far north on the coast of Norway.

The finished cabinet - click to enlarge.

The box comprises 4 nest-chambers, and is made to match the cladding of the house exactly. The top entrance is protected by a flute, and the bottom 3 entrances are adjacent to the wall of the house - a position where Swifts commonly seek a new nest site. A speaker for attraction calls is mounted inside each chamber.  The metal ventilation grill in the middle allows air to flow into the original ventilation grill in the house.

As the eaves were so narrow, the box extends beyond them, but with adequate roof insulation, this will not be a problem.

For Swift boxes to be accepted by owners and architects, it is important that they fit in well with the building - this has been well achieved here.  Thank you Johnny for letting us use it.

The pictures below tell their own story of how it was conceived and assembled, and Johnny has more pictures here and here:

Internal structure, with nest platforms

Components for front assembly

The assembled cabinet. The front is removed for installation

A view from below

A view from inside the box showing the position of 4 tweeter speakers

Close up of the installed cabinet

First occupant of the Cambridge Swift Tower

We usually recommend that  a Swift box entrance should be no more than 30mm by at least 65mm, in order to exclude Starlings. Well this female Starling has not read the rules!

A bit of a squeeze!  Photos Clarke Brunt

On April 29th, while commissioning the attraction calls on the Cambridge Swift Tower, upgraded to a 20 watt solar panel, car battery and Cheng Sheng player, as described here, we discovered the first occupant.

Of course, we cannot be sure that this entrance, at the top of the tower, has not crept over the 30mm limit, but the somewhat squashed shape of the bird, emerging from the box, shows it to be a bit of a struggle.

We know that Swifts can get into a slot as small as 24mm across - though the other dimension is considerably larger than this. Thus, if you are really determined to keep all Starlings out, even the most determined Starlings, then perhaps aim for 28mm, and this should still be an easy entry for Swifts.

Nevertheless, we are rather pleased that this enterprising Starling is making good use of a penthouse suite in our Swift hotel!

For all posts and pictures of the tower see here.

Nest concaves out of fibre-board

by Dick

Fibre-board is a cheap, easy to work material which has potential for making Swift concave nest platforms

I do not usually look in people's dustbins for cigarette ends or old bacon rinds, but I do rummage around in people's skips looking for useful offcuts like MDF for making concaves. This is how I have sourced most of my MDF - but I have run out.

A friend is putting up 4 boxes, so I thought I would make him some concaves. I went along to my local building merchant, Ridgeons, to see if they had any MDF offcuts. They didn't, but what they did have was a broken off piece of fibreboard 12.5mm thick. So I decided to give it a go.

Nest concave made of two layers of fibre-board
Click to enlarge

I made my friend 4 concaves,with an indentation about 10mm deep. I also made one by sticking two pieces together (I used Pritt, but any glue would do), giving a concave 25 mm thick, and a deeper indentation.

As I see it, there are a number of advantages to this material in that it is soft and easy to cut. Although I used a lathe to create the concave, you could probably scrape it out with a spoon! The material has excellent thermal properties, it is used for insulation, and the resulting surface is soft and Swift-friendly.

For other posts on concaves, see here.

Flashing tape for water-proofing

Swift nest-boxes need to last a long time, as, once occupied, the same pair of Swifts may occuply them for many years. Thus any way of defending a nest-box from the ravages of the weather is to be welcome. Here is an idea contributed by David Makin.

The most vulnerable part of a wooden nest-box is the roof.  Sun, rain and frost will all destroy a wooden roof eventually. Decking oil is a good defence, as is roofing felt, but here is another idea by using Denso flashing tape. The Denso website describes it as "a tough, but conformable, grey aluminium laminate coated with a high melting point bitumen adhesive. The new foil laminate gives greater puncture resistance, improved tensile strength, elongation and tear strength"
. 

Coating the roof of a nest-box may well suffice in keeping both the sun and rain off a box. If the box is kept dry, then frost should cause no harm.

Here, David has used Denso flashing tape to cover the whole box, which, in this case incorporates a double roof, suitable for a south-facing aspect.