Swift action needed if we are to save a summer visitor

IF cuckoos are the harbingers of spring, then swifts are the harbingers of summer.

Arriving from Africa in May, they are one of the easiest birds to recognise with their sickleshaped wings and forked tails,

And they never perch. Except for nesting and raising young, swifts spend their whole life on the wing, probably covering 300,000 miles between fledging and making their first nest two years later.

But according to the RSPB they are in trouble, with numbers having halved in the last 20 years.

The reasons are unclear but seem to be a combination of factors.

These include the reduction in numbers of flying insects, an increase in severe weather, and habitat changes, some as a result of climate change, here and in Africa.

Some conservationists believe one of those habitat changes, the loss of breeding sites on old buildings in this country, is a major factor.

Swift colonies make their mud and saliva nests almost exclusively on and in buildings, in holes and ledges around roofs.

They return to the same sites year after year and some buildings may have been used for decades, or even centuries. When redevelopment takes place the new buildings often have no suitable nooks and crannies.

With many nature conservation problems people often feel powerless to help, but in this case almost anyone can do so.

You can obtain, or make, swift nest boxes, and you can incorporate nesting bricks or other appropriate structures into new buildings. If you are responsible for new buildings of any sort, you can ask for them to be designed into the structure.

A few years ago the Wildlife Trust in Birmingham installed dozens of nesting boxes in and around the city centre.

Information about swifts and how to make and provide nest boxes is on the Swift Conservation website: www.swift-conservation.org

Peter Shirley is a nature conservationist with interests from neighbourhood to global

ecological issues