Elaine Griffin-Singh, a local Ely councillor announced in the local newspaper that she will focus on Hedgehogs and Swifts, so we got in touch. One of the outcomes is a project at the youth and community centre called Centre E
[Update July 20th 2019 - first Swift seen entering and leaving the 3rd box from the left on the north-facing wall]
We already have very successful projects in Ely in St Mary's Church (55 pairs in 2018) and the Maltings (11 pairs in 2018), so we were pleased to be offered a new opportunity.
The flat topped roof of Centre E is surrounded by a low parapet wall. It is a solid wall 9 inches thick constructed of headers and stretchers. We thus thought it would be a simple matter of removing some headers, inserting a half brick entrance piece with a nest box screwed to the inside of the wall. We have done this many times in Victorian walls,
However, Centre E was built more recently, in the early 20th century, with very hard bricks and even harder mortar. So what we planned as a 1 day project turned out to be 3 days - and we have a few things left to do.
Normally we can drill out lime mortar and take the headers out whole. Not this time, we used diamond core drills (we went through 2 of them) to drill out the bricks. It was jolly hard work.
That wasn't the only complication, the inside wall was far from even, so fitting the boxes neatly proved quite a challenge, but we got it done and we are pleased with the result.
Moral of the story - test the hardness of bricks and mortar before embarking on a project like this.
The boxes are constructed larger than normal in anticipation of fitting cameras so that visitors to the Youth centre can follow the nesting of the swifts, and become environmentally aware and enthused by what they see on a monitor downstairs in the youth hub.
#parapet
[Update July 20th 2019 - first Swift seen entering and leaving the 3rd box from the left on the north-facing wall]
We already have very successful projects in Ely in St Mary's Church (55 pairs in 2018) and the Maltings (11 pairs in 2018), so we were pleased to be offered a new opportunity.
The flat topped roof of Centre E is surrounded by a low parapet wall. It is a solid wall 9 inches thick constructed of headers and stretchers. We thus thought it would be a simple matter of removing some headers, inserting a half brick entrance piece with a nest box screwed to the inside of the wall. We have done this many times in Victorian walls,
However, Centre E was built more recently, in the early 20th century, with very hard bricks and even harder mortar. So what we planned as a 1 day project turned out to be 3 days - and we have a few things left to do.
Normally we can drill out lime mortar and take the headers out whole. Not this time, we used diamond core drills (we went through 2 of them) to drill out the bricks. It was jolly hard work.
That wasn't the only complication, the inside wall was far from even, so fitting the boxes neatly proved quite a challenge, but we got it done and we are pleased with the result.
Moral of the story - test the hardness of bricks and mortar before embarking on a project like this.
The boxes are constructed larger than normal in anticipation of fitting cameras so that visitors to the Youth centre can follow the nesting of the swifts, and become environmentally aware and enthused by what they see on a monitor downstairs in the youth hub.
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| Centre E - 8 nest box entrances barely visible |
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| 4 entrances in the west |
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| 4 entrances in the north |
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| 4 headers removed in the west wall |
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| 2 double swift boxes in the west wall |
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| 2 double boxes in the north wall |
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