Swift Update - 30th May 2020

What a day yesterday was, at around 8pm the skies came alive with a big increase in swifts. I now have a single in box 1, pairs in box 2 & 3 , a very interested pair of bangers yesterday which I expect will find a box in the coming days. 4 more screamers arrived as well. So really positive 

I have also seen an increase in House Martins but with the ground being so dry I placed some mud out mixed with clay and straw making two small puddles. Let’s hope it works 

Swift Update 29th May 2020

Good news , whilst boxes 2 and 3 next build my bangers (3) have been building up courage to go in a box, I saw one last night (28th) May enter the small box 1. I hope they choose one of my other vacant boxes as box 1 is smaller and gets sun most of the day, I placed it to fill a gap but never expected it to be used before other ones. 

The weather has been excellent and really good for swifts , with activity most of the day. Long may it continue. 

Swift update 22nd May 2020

So my swift in box 3 was joined by its mate on Thursday 21st May 2020. The first bird entered at 20:20 pm and the second at 21:40 when it was almost dark. Luckily I was in bed with the window open and I could hear all the excitement on screams for 15 mins after it entered. 

In box 2 (the box that bread last year) , I was lucky last night 22nd May 2020 to be watering my tomato plants I have growing on the window ledge when a bird flew in to box 2. It was clearly not put off by be standing literally 1 foot from the box window in the house. 

The weather for swift watching hasn’t been good for the past couple of days , windy, mild though with no rain. But the swift have been busy feeding with thousands at Wintersett low over the lake this afternoon. 

Swift Update 20th May 2020

Yesterday at around 4 pm a swift entered box 3. This nest failed last year. 

As far as I can see there has been no new arrivals today. I have been playing the calls a little as well. And the weather has been brilliant for them , surprising. 

I suspect the mate will turn up anytime and breeding will commence. 

At 8pm the swift entered the box and roosted. 

New Swift Boxes

I had some spare 8mm plywood in the top of the garage , it’s been there years. 

So I decided to build some new swifts boxes built to the spec of the house eaves on our estate so they would sit flush. 

I measured up then cut the wood with a jigsaw, nailed together and used no more nails to seal. I then sanded the boxes with an electric sander and painted the boxes with teak oil and then PVA to seal. 

Another trick I found when building owl boxes is if you seal the edges using exterior filler and the sand and paint with pva glue, it gives a smooth and rock solid finish so I also did this. 

I’m always conscious when using non exterior ply to give it a good few coats to seal as it easily splits if water gets in. 

After this I painted 3x with ronseal dark oak wood paint (to match the colour of the houses. 

The boxes have a 30mm x 65mm bottom entrance that they can swoop into. There is also a grippy landing strip. I decided to try a bottom entrance to keep the boxes unobtrusive if the neighbours want one. I also referred to the Bristol swifts blog which mark advised that these boxes work better for him. I plan to place two of these on the front of my house and it’s south facing so I wanted to keep all of the box shaded and away from the sun. 

I added a nest cup, with was made from clay, and then stuck some budgie feathers (no budgies were hurt during the making of this) , some fluff from the tumble dryer and some twigs. The idea of this is to give the birds a head start, it takes a swift a full season to build a nest, this might just give them the encouragement they need to breed that year if they are mature birds- although swifts add to their nest every year as its slowly decomposing all the time. 

Swifts in 2019

So following the success of 2018 I was keen to develop my colony further. 

14/4/2019 - I added two new boxes of the same Zeist design from the nest box company based in Solihull , they also custom built a box for me to fit in a small space at the edge of the house for a small charge. 

3/5/2019 - over 200 Swifts were just down the road at Wintersett but still non at home. 

27/5/2019- by the 27th May there was hardly any swifts in Crofton, this could be due to a terrible cyclone in Mozambique this winter, followed by by bad weather of the Sahara. Many Swift blogs reporting low numbers returning and mass fatalities. To be honest by this date I was panic stricken. 

28/5/2019- 3 swifts were screaming around the house- I played the swift calls to attract them. 2 swifts attempted to enter boxes from 8pm-10pm. Non entered boxes. 

29/5/2019- Swifts Roosted in Box 3. 

9/6/2019- A Swift flew out of box 4 

10/6/2019- Sunny and Mild, up to 30 Swifts over the house with 6 Screaming round - 2x pairs in box 3 and 4. 

18/6/2019 - 1 Banger 

23/6/2019- 2 boxes placed on neighbouring houses. Even some banging on neighbours boxes. 8/9 screaming around the street. 

3/8/2919- Swifts active in box 2 & 3, screaming parties of up to 10 birds. 2 birds see. Going in A neighbours house where no box was present. Box 3 had layed eggs but were ejected in mid July , maybe they fell out of the nest when an intruder entered. 

19/8/2019- box 2 feeding young, all other birds have left. 

25/8/2019 - Baby Swift peering out of the box 2 , decent sized bird. 

2/9/2919- Swifts still, but seldom seen. I predict only one bird still feeding the young. 

8/9/19- Swifts last heard , I presume the fledged overnight or on the 9th September. 

History of Greenside Swifts

The story of my Swifts (apus apus) started in June 2018. Crofton has two major swift colonies, one on Oak Street and the other on Shay Lane estate. These estates are typically 1950's built council estates, and well established colonies.

In 2018 Wakefield council decided to renovate these properties and have new soffits and facias and some new roofs. This was a tragedy for the Swifts , as many of their access holes were sealed.

After witnessing in June 2018 a number of birds attempting and failing to enter there usual nesting sites I decided to buy a number of boxes. 3 boxes were placed that year.

2018 Was a great Swift year, helped by the good weather. In June I played the Swift calls through a speaker out of the window to attract the birds. I quickly managed to attract 2 pairs within 3 days, which makes me wonder is these were Swifts which were ejected from nesting sites on Oak Street.

That same year I also had 12 'Bangers', these are 1st year birds who bang on potential nesting sites to see if they are occupied, they build a mental picture and return from Africa in their 2nd year to occupy them and build nests.

Converting Eaves for Swifts

My house was built in 1993 by Ben Bailey Homes. They were built to the standard building regulations at the time which means an outer brick, followed by a insulated cavity (about 3 inches) then the internal brick. The houses were built with open eaves. 

This forms both a challenge and opportunity for converting these for Swifts. Firstly the cavity needs to be Bridged so the swift doesn’t fall down. There needs to be an entrances cut into the bird guard (a cheap plastic lip to stop birds getting in the roof). Swifts can also be helped by adding a nesting cup, and also they need to be boxes off in the roof. 

It had always been my intention to do this as my swift coming grew , so I had an idea to do it this year. 

I used 3mm ply cut to size and added a nesting cup made from interior filler with some fluff and feathers added. Secured with adhesive and cut a hole in the bird guard, using some cheap wood to box off the back. 

4 new nesting races were added this year. 

This was before

After the wood was added to bridge the cavity.