Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on December 16, 2007, 01:17:27 AM
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Swifts will be back from their winter break in fours months. Would anyone like to join a growing group of people putting nest boxes up for them? Guaranteed no mess! All you need is a wall at least 3m high with a clear fly way in and out for the birds. Two or three nest boxes in a line is a good start and a CD player, cheap from Tescos, with speaker cable sockets to extend a speaker beside the boxes to advertise to non breeders. The boxes can either be home made or bought. Schwegler are expensive and last a life time
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some home made designs including an Israeli ammo box
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Great nesting boxes, Mark. Will make an effort and put up a couple of boxes (selfmade of course, thats half the fun) before spring. Have had the swifts nesting in a box intended for starlings from time to time, but a designated box will be much better.
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Staale, you put up nest boxes for starlings! :o
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something I wouldnt consider either.
A hole 33x65mm will keep Starlings out.
How about this for someone good at DIY. A nest box covered with glue and sand then painted to matcg the house
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Very clever DIY project, ideal for those who think nest boxes are not pretty.
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Here are some videos from a colony in Eilenberg Germany
http://nl.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gierzwaluwen+Eilenbergkolonie+&search=Zoeken (http://nl.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gierzwaluwen+Eilenbergkolonie+&search=Zoeken)
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Sorry guys, but I happen to like starlings! I know they come in billions in other parts of the world, also as introduced pests, but they are not that numerous aroud here, and it is great to wake up to their singing in the spring. I also put up nest boxes for owls, but they only reproduce when the mouse population is at a peak.
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It's because we have so many of them. My house has or I should say had four pairs nesting. Two under the roof tiles, one in the attic and one in a swift box. Millions come our way out of Europe to spend the winter
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Fascinating topic. I'd offer to put up some boxes but methinks your swifts might be a tad tired by the time they got here each night, and the babies would have starved!! ;D
The camouflaged nest obviously belongs to someone with WAY too much time (or money) on their hands. Cool idea though!!
I've thought of putting up nesting boxes for parrots in our street trees (in particular a massive Eucalyptus on our front nature strip) but because they're street trees it would probably be frowned upon. Would love to have the Eastern Rosellas breeding here, so as to have them here more regularly.
Anyway, that is getting off the topic of swifts... sorry!
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Having nest boxes would be nice even in street trees. It might even make people think twice before parking :)
Do a bit of rebellious gardening/animal protection and get the boxes up we (I) would love to see pics of the parrots as well as the swifts.
Joakim
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Joakim,
I photographed an Eastern rosella x Crimson rosella hybrid the other day, that visits our garden regularly. They obviously interbreed at times in the wild as we do see them from time to time elsewhere as well. Will see about posting a pic in the wildlife thread at some point, even if we're not heading towards spring 2008 here as the current wildlife thread indicates!! :o
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They interbreed in captivity also
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Mark,
There are a few things that will interbreed in captivity that would never consider it in the wild (or at least as far as I know). Being trapped in an enclosed space with a limited number of partners does that to you I guess. ;)
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One last box bought from CJ Wildfood and designed by Edward from London Swifts 40x15x15cm with an entrance hole 65x33mm and made from 12mm exterior ply
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Mark
my village only has swallows - will the nest boxes work for them too?
Sue
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Sue Swallows dont use boxes but House Martins do. Swifts are, usually, easy to attract to nest boxes. All you need is the CD playing.
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Sue, I'd be surprised if swifts are not found in your village? I'm going to have to take down my boxes next week as that wall will be inside our new upper extension, with building starting on 7/1/08.
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Anthony great oportunity to build some boxes into the upper layer a blocks or do what Erich Kaiser has done in Germany
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I will make enquiries. If there are boxes that can be inserted into the brick work and harled over that would be ideal. Not sure I want a Waage. Sounds like something to avoid when travelling through Middle Earth. :o
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Here's the very thing and not excessively priced. http://www.jacobijayne.co.uk/birds_wild-life_shop.php?page=NESTBOX&type=BRICK_BOXES&PHPSESSID=1afd9af4fe9b22526650bef91f7de8d6
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The No. 17 bottom photo is the one most people use when building them in to walls
The waag is a nest cup sitting on scales so the young can be weighed
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Not being most people I think no 25 will do me as it is built for purpose and cheaper.
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Anthony,
I've never seen a swift, and I do look out for them, there are house martins which hunt over a field a few hundred yards away and I have seen them in the village (and sand martins nesting at the coast about 2 miles away) and I think Chris B has swifts in her village which only 4 miles away.
Is the lack of them likely to be due to a lack of nesting sites or what?? Any ideas?
Sue
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yes lack of nesting sites
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Just look and listen in May Sue. They are very fast and often very loud but not obvious as, unless they are nesting, they don't come near the ground. Mark, am I correct in thinking that the 'screamers' will have to spend the next 12 months in the air 24/7 as they are too late to find a suitable nesting site?
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non breeders and those that have lost their nest sites can spend many years flying before finding a nest. Young birds take 3 to 5 years to mature. Flying continuously during this time
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Amazing to think, and also, they are related to hummingbirds which have to 'hibernate' every night!
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Antony, and others, there is a new swift brick on the market
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Would forum members over here like to take part in a country wide swift survey during the summer? It will be very easy. All you need to do is look for low flying screaming swifts. Note the number of birds or guess, The street name or grid reference and town
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Yet another web site dedication to swifts has gone on to the web. It's mine and will be aimed at N Ireland
http://www.saveourswifts.co.uk/ (http://www.saveourswifts.co.uk/)
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would anyone like to have a DVD on swifts? Dont inundate me please.
It contains
an old Anglia TV programme called 'Devil Birds' - 26 minutes
footage from Erich Kaiser's colony in Germany - 35 minutes
footage of a single nest in the colony - 9 minutes
a pair of swifts nesting in a tit type box with a camera on the roof
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The British Trust for Ornithology and Daily Telegraph are pushing swifts this year. Better late than never.
We, BTO, are running National Nest Box Week again in 2008, from 14-21 Feb. The
Daily Telegraph want to support this and would like to run a feature on
putting up Swift boxes. They would like to talk to someone who has put up a
box and played the accompanying cd and had Swifts move in.
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Other than Anthony is anyone putting up a swift box or two this summer for swifts? The first wave will be in Europe in 3 weeks.
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A friend has just put these up on his house. They are closed to stop sparrows moving in. The hole is too small for starlings
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I haven't put my boxes back up since the wall they were on became incorporated into the new extension.
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I thought you planning to set boxes in to the wall. Playing the CD should work. If they had nested they would be very confused on their return. They are fixated on their nest sites
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Here's a man from the next town to mine with his home made nest boxes. All occupied. Unfortunately he died this time last year. The boxes will remain in place.
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Hi all,
Please register as a member of the recently formed uk-swifts project, the aim of which is to ultimately create a comprehensive and freely available database of Swift breeding colonies within the UK. You can help by forwarding details of any colonies you already know about, or that you locate this season, or in the future. The web site to register and record details is
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-swifts (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-swifts)
Unfortunately the RSPB, BTO etc are not backing this project so please forward this to locals groups/members of the RSPB, biodiversity officers, wildlife organisations and anyone else you think may be interested. Forward it to anyone you know in England, Scotland and Wales who may be interested.
You may know already that that there was a very well synchronised fall of swifts across Europe this weekend especially on Saturday. How they did it no one will know
Mark
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If you do know of swift nest sites and dont want involved with another forum feel free to email me the details
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Here's a German common swift apartment block built inside the gable of a house
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Very interesting Mark - it seems "Erich" has placed "TV cameras" for each nest ::) ;D
Were is the monitor?
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No cameras, Armin. Erich sits in there with the swifts.
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I should bring those who are interested up to date with my swifts. I now have 7 nest boxes across the gable of the house. I placed a mini camera in one box and I'm happy to tell you a pair has moved in. Watching them is fascinating. The grainy photo was taken during the night. Added daylight gives a better photo
I have formed the Northern Ireland Swift Group to promote swifts. We are now constituted and have our own bank account. Funds of £300 has so far been donated by two local businesses to buy nest boxes for school projects. Four school will get 5 nest boxes each. Hopefully funding will buy a nest box camera for each school
The cheapest nest box available, the Dutch Zeist design, comes from a very enthusiastic man in Cambridge. He sells them for £12 plus postage. This is approximately £14 total.
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That's nice, they are fascinating birds. There's at least 6 couples nesting under the roof tiles of my house, you can hear them sliding over the zink gutters. Just last week during some bad weather I found one crashed on the lawn, but a few hours of drying up in the windowsill and it was gone. There's plenty of house martins (Delichon urbicum) and barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) here as well, I can try to get a few pictures if anyones interested?
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Yes please to pics. Those nest boxes look very neat Mark.
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Anthony what about your swift nest boxes?
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Haven't noticed any activity, but then this time of year is just mad! School finishes on Friday but then I have doors, walls and ceilings to paint and then the garden needs some work and I haven't been to the allotment for weeks. At least the marking was finished last night! My class is .... could be....watching 'Supersize Me' but I'd deny it!
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I should have put an emphasis on "try", my patience ran out when 15 minutes windowsill perching only resulted in a flat battery and 50 shots of a birdless sky... A few very bad pics of barn swallows and mossy roof tiles below:
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So, Arisaema, the swifts are nesting in the gaps where the roof tiles rise?
Anthony are you playing the CD?
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Yes, they've been there for as long as I can remember, it's amazing how they even manage to fly into that tiny crack. We had to lift the tiles when the new gutters were put up, they nest in the space between the first and second row.
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Here are some more stills from the nest box camera
1. screaming at non breeding 'bangers' who bang their bodies against nest holes to see if the nest site is ocupied
2. both at the entrance screaming
3. kiss and cuddle
4. looking out for intruders
5. practicing nest building for 2009. In this photo the swift is glueing feathers in to place with saliva
6. everything for the nest is collected while flying
On Thursday I put up two new nest boxes. Within 25 minutes I had two birds in each box
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Yesterday morning I recorded non breeding swifts at my house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7z6RWoNhjc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7z6RWoNhjc)
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Mark,
The nest box pictures are VERY cool. Hopefully they're successful in breeding. Given your comment about practise building for 2009, does that mean that the breeding season has already ended, or do you mean they were just juvenile birds that are still building up experience before actually breeding?
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Paul, compared to birds of a similar size common swifts Apus apus dont breed until 2-5 years old but during this time they pair up. During this period they have to find a nest site and hang on to it. "The single most important part of a swifts life is finding a nest site and hanging on to it" quote from ? Modern building methods and regulations will be the end of the swift that is already in serious decline in the UK and Ireland especially Scotland.
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So this means that some of your tenants will breed and others won't this year? Would love to see them successful. Must be thrilling to be able to help something like that which is endangered. We want updates!! ;)
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yes in my colony and natural colonies. It is a sucessful colony already. Last year 4 pairs practised and one pair bred. This year 2 pairs are practising, 2 pairs have chicks and 1 pair might have eggs due any day.
Even if no-one comments there will be updates.
I'll be on TV in the coming months talking about swifts. A camera man is coming some day next week to do an interview
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Even if no-one comments there will be updates.
Yes, please continue to give us updates! This thread has been very interesting, I've always taken these birds for granted as they've lived here longer than I have.
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Most impressed with the colony Mark, and the inside pics. Your Youtube recording is excellent.
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Arisaema, what's you real name and are you a man or woman? Sorry for the probing questions.
Is the bird/s in your photos a breeder or a prospector? You are very lucky to have 6 natural nests under your roof. Like my birds yours are also at the edge of their range. Do you get screaming parties or birds flying againt the existing nest holes? You could enhance your colony with the addition of nest boxes on your gable. Are your birds nesting in the attic?
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A man. Probe as much as you'd like, but you'll have to PM for the answer, I've become rather fond of my relative internet anonymity ;)
That bird is a breeder, you could hear the chicks "peep-peep" when it entered. They usually arrive during the second part of May, but by then the barn swallows have been here for a couple of weeks, and they make such a racket that I've never noticed any screaming parties. The attic is panelled so there's no way for them to get in, but with 26m/85ft of those old tiles they have plenty of space. There may very well be more than 6 nests, those on the vestibule roof are just easily spotted as it's only a story high and right next to my cold frames.
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A man. Probe as much as you'd like, but you'll have to PM for the answer, I've become rather fond of my relative internet anonymity ;)
Hmm.... there may be some truth in this.....some frisson of secrecy to be behind a pseudonym.......I may suddenly become "Mata Hari".... don't tell anyone :-X ;)
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When my children were little we used to have screaming parties annually....
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When my children were little we used to have screaming parties annually....
Huh! Go to eat Christmas lunch with my in-laws, those still are screaming parties... and I am not not meaning the children! :P ::)
No swifts here, but sparrows have made a nice home, by the looks of things,under the flashings of my neighbours dormer window!
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(Slightly OT) update on the barn swallow chicks:
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Very cute!!
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here are two of my swift chicks and a practice nest built by two non breeders
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Have you noticed the two pieces of plastic? One blue and one white?
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Yes, I noticed the blue plastic... and the lovely green price tag too!! ;D ;D ;D ;)
Seriously though, the two chicks are very cool. Fascinating to see the practice nest as well. I grew up with budgerigar aviaries on our farm, so it brings back memories of opening nesting boxes to check on the fledglings etc, and of course the brand new "just hatched" babies in all their beautiful ugliness!! ::)
Thanks for the pics. Looking forward to more. :D
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Here's a terrible blow for the swift population in Belgium
I just recieved this message from a Dutch forum that I think everyone should know about.
At the weekend a huge colony of Swifts in the Antwerp harbour was destroyed. The colony consisted approximately 150 occupied nests. The building was detroyed by a demolition contractor. The person who posted the message on a Belgian forum managed to stop the work as soon as he arrived. 101 dead birds, young and some adults, were recovered from the debris. 81 surviving birds were found. The demolition work continued 20 minutes after it'd been stopped.
The pictures say more than I can. I'm shaking behind my computer sad and very angry...
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>:( :'( :-[
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I have email addresses for councillors, that I will post later, for people to write complaints to
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stadstoezicht@stad.antwerpen.be city supervision
college@stad.antwerpen.be city counsil
patrick.janssens@stad.antwerpen.be Antwerp mayor
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I have fired off an email to Patrick. I am very sad at this destruction of a swift colony at the height of the breeding season. They should be ashamed of themselves. It is an absolute disgrace! >:(
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Thanks
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A reply has come to a swift group member in Belgium. It reads
Swifts killed at demolition shed: unfortunate case. With the demolition of old sheds of the NV Wilmarsdonk, last Friday & Saturday, nests of a colony swifts destroyed. Some hundred birds got killed. Another eighty have been taken to Birdcare centres of Brasschaat and Kieldrecht. At the moment 61 birds that will fly away soon are taken care of in the birdcare centre van Brasschaat. Saturday, the demolition, thanks to Natuurpunt (nature point) and the patrolman of the section Natuur en Bos (forest) was put on hold.
A minute protocol was made as it concerns protected birds that may not be disturbed during the breeding season. That this demolition involves this colony is an unfortunate case that could have been prevented by a better communication.
The Antwerp harbour council and Natuurpunt regret the fact that this demolition had these results. Both parties say they will do anything to prevent such tragidy in the future. Some initiatives have been taken already. The Antwerp harbour council already places nests for swifts on their own buildings. But more is needed. First The Antwerp harbour council wants to keep an eye to demolition or rebuilding of old sheds where swifts colonies live only after breeding season. To compensate the inevitable loss of the nests at this demolition, the Antwerp harbour council will give a finacial hand to those who are willing to put such nestboxes in/on their buildings. The Antwerp harbour council and Natuurpunt Antwerp-North together will
combine their contineous efforts to give these protected birds and other animals a place in the Antwerp harbour.
Swifts return to their safe nests every year. In the harbour area lives another colony swifts in other sheds. They are not at any threat.
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At least young swifts are easy to rear. You just need a Robinson MV moth trap or bags of 'Minced Morsels' (dog food advertised by Clement Freud) and loads of water. Once they start exercising their wings their food intake increases 10 fold!
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Here's some action at my house this afternoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYxghAP2zOM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYxghAP2zOM)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ow_9F3iJ0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ow_9F3iJ0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2LEvCIUL0U (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2LEvCIUL0U)
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and one more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVsXNFQP4lA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVsXNFQP4lA)
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I'm om TV tonight talking swifts. If you have Sky TV zoom around the channels until you find the regional programmes. You're looking for UTV news
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I'm om TV tonight talking swifts. If you have Sky TV zoom around the channels until you find the regional programmes. You're looking for UTV news
okey dokey, Mark.
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They didnt show me
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Terrible pictures Mark :-[, and thank you for this beautiful topic that show other things apart human barbarity.
Yesterday I found one of the common Swift that was born this year under my house roof. It was a pity because it had grown with a string attached to one foot and finally it had jumped from the nest with this string all around its body and even going through its leg. I examitated it to see how to help it and I saw the string had strangled the foot as it had been growing up amputating the foot. I decided to cut the string and the dry foot which was dead and hanging from the rest of the leg by a bit of skin. The injury had healed and I gave it water with sugar and many insects.
Today I threw it up and it went off flying perfectly :)
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It should live OK with only one foot. For the next 2 to 5 years in will fly non stop and will not need a foor
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On Friday I was at a meeting with the RSPB along with the people who run
Northern Ireland Swift Group http://www.saveourswifts.co.uk/ (http://www.saveourswifts.co.uk/) under contruction
London Swifts http://www.londons-swifts.org.uk/ (http://www.londons-swifts.org.uk/)
Action for Swifts http://www.actionforswifts.com/ (http://www.actionforswifts.com/)
Concern for Swifts Scotland http://www.concernforswifts.com/ (http://www.concernforswifts.com/)
the guy who is running the UK swift data base http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-swifts/ (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-swifts/)
The RSPB want one UK wide swift group that everyone will be under
http://www.swift-conservation.org/ (http://www.swift-conservation.org/)
The RSPB now recognise, after years of compaigning, that there is a population problem. A few years ago stats showed the population down 30% with the greatest decline in Scotland and SE England. The Breeding Bird Survey 2007 just published shows the decline is now 50% in these areas. The RSPB will now put money towards helping stop the decline. Colonies will hopefully be safe from building work. If nests in walls and under eaves cant be kept nest boxes will have to go up. They need a full UK survey. Please I urge you to register for the UK swift survey at the link below? They need info on swifts sites that you know of and sites that have been lost. This can be single nests or colonies
For Northern Ireland I'm collecting data to add to a Google map.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl)
We're also looking for 'Swift Champions' across the UK and Ireland to look for swifts in low flying screaming parties (house height or less), nest sites and report anything that may destroy a nest site/colony.
The RSPB will be granted access to the maps by the NI Swift Group and Cambridge bird club. Like the UK project I need street names, town and postcode for this to work. If the colony is in a large commercial building I need to know and how many there are e.g my house 4 pairs or 10 pairs lost at demolished mill address ...
The fantastic news is the swift has just been added to the amber list in Ireland. This means someone has pointed out their decline.
I've said it before but if every UK and Ireland based SRGC member with a suitable house, two storey and clear way in and out for birds, could put up a couple of swift nest boxes that could help the serious decline due to lost nest sites. Swifts are guaranteed little or no mess and their nest boxes are starling proof
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I heard tonight that the amber listing for the swift in Ireland includes the north.
This is the kind of thing swifts are up against. 12 pairs used to nest along the side of this building
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Mark,
there is obvious the problem of heat insulation of walls and roofs to limit global warmings (ones energy expenses) vs. destruction of nests /housings/ billets not only for swifts but also of bats.
The sad thing is people don't care (respect) animals needs...
Fair compromises are found to rarely. :'(
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when I speak to people about bats and swifts their answer is nearly always the same - "what use are they?" or "what do they do for me?"
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eating flies and mosquitos is the answer is it not Mark for what good are swifts and bats.
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Ah yes, but why does something have to be "for the good of mankind" to be allowed to exist? It's different where something is breeding out of all proportions (rats, snails etc) where mankind is the reason for the population, but why must something have a use before it is allowed to live? if that was the case the human race would be killed off immediately, because in general we are not "good for" anything. ;) ;D
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clergy can be the worst!
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clergy can be the worst!
depends on how many mosquitoes and flies they eat!
cheers
fermi