We’re all set for a flying visit!
STREETS HAVE BIRD BOXES INSTALLED TO HELP SWIFTS GLIDING IN FROM AFRICA
A swift, also inset below
NEXT spring Trevor Road is expecting some visitors. There will only be a brief window in which to see them, from April until they head back to Africa in August for the winter.
But residents of the street in Swinton, Salford, and two neighbouring ones are doing everything they can to ensure a stopover. Then they can watch the arrivals grace the skies above their gardens with their crescent silhouettes. When they do rock up their presence will be confirmed by unmistakable high-pitched ‘chee-ree-eee’ screams.
Local residents working with the RSPB have installed 17 swift boxes in the hope that the birds remember their short-stay and maybe return again in future years.
Their nests are usually made of straw, dry grass, and feathers glued together with saliva from the bird’s mouth in a crevice in masonry, under the eaves of a house, or on a beam in the roof of a building. But if their journey to breed ends in Trevor Road and two neighbouring roads they have ideal, safe places, for their nests.
The project began when nature lover Gail Messenger posted an image on Twitter of swifts nesting in the eaves of her Trevor Road home. The RSPB then teamed up with Manchester based company Suez, a waste management company, which offers their staff a paid day every year to volunteer.
A workshop was set up by the RSPB in August, where Suez staff helped residents of the street, and Mardale Road, and to make their own next boxes.
Gail said: “It has been brilliant to work together as a street to make this happen. We can’t wait to hear the calls of the swifts as they return next summer and hopefully choose some of our nests as their home. What’s brilliant is that once swifts have found a place to call home, they will usually return to the same place each year so we should be lucky enough to have generations of swifts coming straight from Trevor Road. Watching the swifts return each year is as thrilling as seeing the Red Arrows.”
According to the RSPB, swift numbers have declined by more than half over the last 20 years and are now on the UK’s red list for conservation concern. This means they are of the highest priority for conservation action. One of the key reasons for this decline is due to a loss of nesting sites. After their gruelling journey swifts are on the lookout for spaces to nest in the high crevices of buildings or loft spaces. These sites are often found in older buildings, but many have been lost in cities and towns across the UK, meaning less space for swifts to make their home.
Swifts can fly up to 800km (500 miles) a day on migration. They spend their life almost entirely on the wing and even feed, sleep and mate in flight. They feed exclusively on insects and only come to land when nesting. An abundant supply of insects is critical for their survival. Parent swifts collect lots of insects to take back to their chicks – up to 1,000 at once, which make a big bulge in their throat.
Most of the 17 boxes will go up on homes in Trevor Road but four will be on houses in Mardale Road and Thornlea Avenue.
Lorraine Jones, who lives in Mardale Road, said: “Gail told us of the swifts nesting at her home – they were incredible to watch. She mentioned that they seemed to be showing an interest in our house and suggested we might want a box for them. I jumped at the chance to help wildlife. It will be an opportunity for me daughter, Callie, to see and learn about nature too.”