Farmers helping to boost swifts in the countryside
A new initiative is looking to attract nesting pairs of a red-listed bird into rural areas. Athwenna Irons reports
MORE than 30 bird boxes have been installed on farms to help swifts returning for the summer find suitable places to nest.
The Allenford and Martin Down Farmer Clusters, south and south-west of Salisbury, facilitated by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), have installed 31 nest boxes and eight calling speakers after securing funding through three grants.
Swifts migrate from Africa every spring but these red-listed birds are finding fewer and fewer nesting sites as modern houses are built with no places for them to gain access to suitable cavities to nest in.
Swifts like to nest below the eaves, in the wall and below the roof. Even old buildings that would have been suitable are being restored and insulated and potential nesting spaces blocked.
Surveys carried out by Megan Lock, GWCT farmland biodiversity advisor, across the Allenford and Martin Down Farmer Clusters (two thirds of the Martin Down Farmer Supercluster), found swifts were nowhere. Farmers asked for help to get swifts back on their farms.
Megan secured funding for the project from The Swire Charitable Trust through GWCT, Fordingbridge Greener Living and a Hampshire county councillor grant from Cllr Edward Heron.
Volunteers from Hampshire Swifts spent three days with Megan visiting farms to install the boxes and callers. In total, 31 boxes were installed on farmhouses and other farm buildings.
Eight sound callers covering 10 of the boxes were put up. These help to attract the birds by playing out the calls that swifts use when nesting, which attracts other, prospecting swifts looking for potential nest sites.
Megan says: “It’s been fantastic. We’ve covered an area from Salisbury to Fordingbridge to Cranborne – the clusters together cover 17,500 hectares. These boxes provide man-made nesting sites, which helps to create those sites that are disappearing, and the callers let the swifts know they are there which greatly increases the chances of swifts using the boxes.
“It would be wonderful if we did get a nesting pair this year, but I think it might take two or three years, this is a long-term project for us – myself and the members of the farmer clusters will be monitoring the boxes and are hoping for them to become successful breeding sites in the future. We are already looking at how expand on this project going forward.”
Tim Norriss, of Hampshire Swifts, adds: “In the last 30 years data from the BTO shows that swifts have declined by 75%. There’s no doubt now there’s overwhelming evidence that it is down to a loss of nest sites, that is the cause of the problem across the whole of the UK. There’s no evidence that it is loss of insects or any other cause.”
Wendy Reid, of Fordingbridge Greener Living, also comments: “Swifts tend to be in urban areas because they like to nest in cracks and holes in buildings so very few nest sites are natural nest sites for them. You will often find them in cities and in villages, but they will go into rural areas if there are sites for them.
“If you have a call player, when they’re flying over they will be attracted to the sound, thinking that there might be other swifts nearby. Because they are site loyal, once they’ve got a nest site, they’ll come back year after year.”
The concept of Farmer Clusters helps farms work collaboratively to find solutions, share ideas, and deliver greater benefits for wildlife and nature that can be implemented on a landscape-scale.
The model has now been adopted countrywide with more than 100 Farmer Clusters in England, supporting more than 5,000 farmers.