Dawlish Swifts
Swift numbers have decreased drastically over the last 15 years by 60% in the UK.
This has led to them being placed on the BTO Red list as a bird of conservation concern. They very much rely on our buildings for nest sites, squeezing into small gaps under tiles or in wall crevices. Modern building techniques and re-roofing blocks up traditional nest sites, restricting access by the birds when they return from their 6000 mile migration from sub-Saharan Africa in May. Unfortunately, as swifts are very faithful to their previous year’s nest, they will often injure themselves whilst attempting to access a blocked nest
There are only a handful of known swift nest sites left in Dawlish and it would be amazing to increase their numbers here. Thankfully, they will nest inside externally fixed boxes which are specially designed for them. Most people don’t realise that they have nesting swifts in their houses as they are very clean and quiet whilst brooding.
If you can provide a place on your house for a nestbox or two, please get in touch and let’s fill our summer skies with these amazing birds again!
You can email Jerry or Follow the Dawlish Swifts Facebook page Join the Dawlish Swifts WhatsApp group https://chat.whatsapp.com/Bba45qIK5rTEit0taAoePQ You can download information about Swifts which includes contact information here