One of the best things about our Mantel Farm Shop is getting to meet some great customers and hear their amazing stories. Below is some information from Ian Donovan, friend and customer of Mantel Farm who is championing some amazing work for swift conservation…
Swifts arrive in our local village…
On the 14th May, a pair of swifts came in to roost in a swift box we had installed in 2022. We had been
playing recorded swift calls from a tweeter speaker mounted on top of the box every spring-autumn since
then, and after two years, we had successfully attracted a new mating pair!
Currently, we are savouring the sound of swifts softly ‘trilling’ each morning from the box. We believe this is
the only current active swift nest (according to the ‘Swift Mapper’ app https://www.swiftmapper.org.uk/ )
recorded in Crowhurst, but we’d like to know if you also have swifts nesting in or around the village!
After moving to Crowhurst in 2015, I set up Hastings and Rother Swift Conservation Group in 2019 along
with Dr John Feltwell, after discovering and surveying a large natural colony in the centre of Battle.
The group was originally set up to secure protections for this nationally important colony, (we have secured
short/medium term protection) and then cover the Hastings and Rother area of East Sussex; raising
awareness, supplying boxes and bricks, and finding, and then protecting and expanding other wild
colonies.
The (now less so) common swift is a truly incredible bird. They are small insectivorous migratory birds that
fly to our shores annually arriving in late April – early May from Sub-Saharan Africa.
They are the fastest bird in the world in level flight, reaching speeds of 70mph and are similar to swallows,
house martins and sand martins but they are in a separate taxonomical group entirely. They’re actually in
the same taxonomical group as the humming bird!
They have scimitar – like wings and look black in the sky, but are in fact brown with a white flush beneath
their chin. Their wing span makes them look bigger than they are in flight, as their bodies are the size of our
blackbirds or song thrushes.
Common swifts cannot perch like passerines as they don’t have feet, only claws that allow them to
temporarily grip vertically onto walls/trees. Their Latin name is ‘Apus apus’ meaning ‘no feet, no feet’!
They only ‘land’ to nest and become sexually mature at around 3-4 years old.
Swifts feed, drink and can breed on the wing. As they don’t breed until 3-4, they may fly for this amount of
time from birth until breeding or before breeding when they will prospect nest holes in eaves for nesting.
In the UK, the common swift was classified as a red listed bird (with the threat of extinction) of conservation
concern in December 2021.
The reasons are myriad.
Swifts like to access holes in the eaves of houses and build nests close to that hole in the roof. I have seen
traditional local nests that are literally on the top course of bricks at tops of walls directly below the eaves!
Building renovations are shutting swifts out. They are nest faithful, returning to the same nest annually for
life. If the nest is blocked, they have been known to fly repeatedly at the blocked hole with fatal
consequences.
Nests can’t be seen from the exterior but may become evident when they return to breed/prospect from late
April/May. A sure sign of a nest site is when groups of swifts will ‘scream’ above nest sites and fly by
screaming. This doesn’t sound as bad as you may think, in fact it’s a quintessential sound of summer!
Swift conservation groups nationwide, offer nest boxes/bricks and work with local developers encouraging
them to create new homes for swifts. Our local groups are Hastings and Rother Swift Conservation
Group https://e-voice.org.uk/hastingsandrotherswifts/ and High Weald Swifts https://www.highwealdswifts.co.uk/
Other factors are insect decline (we’re currently experiencing an insect apocalypse) due to the intensive
spraying of agricultural crops and climate breakdown, leading to extreme weather affecting swifts on their
breeding/winter grounds and on migration.
House martins also became red listed at the same time as the common swift in the UK. We set up House
Martin Conservation UK and Ireland during the pandemic and you can also find us
at https://housemartinconservation.com/
I’m happy to answer your questions about both species and maybe even pop by if you think you
have/would like swifts nesting, house martins also.
National swift conservation bodies are Swift Conservation https://www.swift-conservation.org/ and Action
for Swifts https://actionforswifts.blogspot.com/?m=1
Ian Donovan,
Founder/Chair, Hastings and Rother Swift Conservation Group/House Martin Conservation UK and Ireland
hastingsandrotherswifts@gmail.com
Crowhurst UK
Swift images credited to Robert Booth
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjb8267/albums/72157719673527030/
Logo image credited to Jonathan Pomroy
https://jonathanpomroy.wordpress.com/world-swift-day-june-7th-2020/
