YACWAG’s Swift Project has worked together with the church community at St Andrew’s, Congresbury and the Devon Swift Project to give a major boost for Swifts in our local area.
Bespoke wooden cabinets holding a total of 31 nesting chambers have been installed in the interior of the church tower, giving hope that we can keep Swifts screaming across our skies for many years to come. Swifts will be able to access the nest chambers via entrances behind the wooden window louvres, and a calling system has been installed which will play Swift calls in the morning and evening to attract nearby birds to investigate the new ‘des res’ on offer.
Swifts visit us in the UK from early May to August each year, nesting and raising their young here before they migrate through southern Europe and on to Africa for the colder months of the year. Swift numbers are in steep decline both locally and nationally, with the British population dropping by 66% between 1995 and 2022. One factor in this is thought to be the similarly steep fall in numbers of the insects they rely on for food, linked to pesticide use and habitat loss.
Another major reason for Swift numbers dropping is the lack of suitable nest sites. Swifts nest in crevices in our buildings and make excellent neighbours, but unfortunately few buildings constructed after the mid- 1940s can accommodate them. And as older buildings are renovated over time, the spaces under their eaves and roof tiles are often replaced with modern materials and designs that leave no space for Swifts. To counter this gradual loss many community Swift Projects are installing Swift nest boxes and campaigning for Swift bricks in new developments.
Church towers offer a fantastic opportunity to install boxes at scale and at a height that the Swifts are attracted to, meaning we can make provision for a whole colony of Swifts for the future. Jerry Horn of the Devon Swift Project, who has installed nest boxes for 69 churches to date, made and installed the boxes for St Andrew’s and assisted with securing permissions from the Diocese. The tower at St Mary’s in Yatton has also been surveyed and proved less suitable due to its construction, however YACWAG will continue to explore further opportunities to boost the number of Swift nest sites across Yatton and Congresbury. Huge thanks go to all those who have made the installation at St Andrew’s possible, including Rev Matt Thomson, Rosemary Bailey, Jerry Horn, Lesley Chandler and Martin Fey.
If you are part of a local organisation or business that would like to support YACWAG’s Swift Project, please get in touch.
