Birds could make a Swift exit

July 12, 2019

By Maurice Garvey

A BIRD enthusiast has warned of a Swift exit in Clondalkin Village, should proposed plans for a 155-bed nursing home at Presentation Convent go ahead.

A colony of Swifts are located in the cloisters of the convent building, a site earmarked for development, pending an appeal to An Bord Pleanála by residents.

One of the fastest flying birds in Ireland, Swifts spend virtually all their life airborne, only nesting to breed, but they will be wiped out unless precautions are put in place to protect their colony, according to Daithí De Brún, founder of Swift Conservation Clondalkin and a member of Birdwatch Ireland.

“South Dublin County Council have shown zero to no interest in preserving the Swift population,” said De Brún, who attributes their decline to the loss or renovation of the many 1970/80s style buildings they use for breeding.

He says the colony are the only remaining Swifts in Clondalkin.

However, SDCC say they have identified an active colony in “one of the council’s properties in the Clondalkin area.”

The Swift population in Ireland has declined by over 40 per cent in the last 15 years, and they are on the amber list of birds of conservation concern.

De Brún continued: “Dublin City Council, Kildare, Dún-Laoghaire-Rathdown, Belfast, are all conscious of breeding sites, and have built nest boxes, but Swifts are just not on the agenda for SDCC. They talk about bio-diversity, but only started to do something on their 2015-2020 bio-diversity plan last year.”

De Brún has monitored the Clondalkin colony for ten years, and says the numbers have decreased from 20 to seven in that time.

He made a submission during the planning process for the nursing home, citing “great concerns” for their future, as they are “faithful to their nest sites.”

On Monday, De Brún gave a Clondalkin Tidy Towns talk to residents at the convent grounds, pointing out the distinctive scythe shaped wings of Swifts, who he says, sleep and eat on the wing and travel as far away as southern Africa and the China Royal Palace.

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Swifts hit new low as poor weather takes its toll

Mass migration back to UK waylaid by stormy conditions and lack of nesting places

Patrick Barkham

Thu 20 Jun 2019 12.32 BSTLast modified on Sun 23 Jun 2019 17.09 BST

The number of swifts that returned to Britain from their wintering grounds in Africa this spring was the lowest since records began, with poor weather in the Mediterranean delaying their arrival by two weeks. Experts fear the recent wet weather will further hit their numbers. Swift numbers in Britain have fallen by more than 50% since 1995.

More than 100 walks, talks and visits to urban areas to witness the swift’s aerial “screaming parties” will be held this week to raise awareness of the plight of this unique migratory bird.

Nick Brown, a coordinator of Swift Awareness Week, which starts on Saturday, said: “The very cool and wet weather we have had for most of May and June does not suit swifts. They are either incubating their eggs or trying to feed small young and they need warm, dry conditions to find the insects and spiders floating in the air on which they feed.

“Swift Awareness Week aims to raise the profile of this troubled bird and show how easy it is to help by putting up nest boxes for them.”

Swifts can go months or even years entirely airborne, eating insects in flight and sleeping on the wing, only landing when they are mature and ready to nest in the roofs of buildings.

This year poor weather has led to some adult swifts being found grounded and unable to fly, soaking and emaciated from a lack of opportunities to feed on insects. Pictures showed desperate groups of swifts clinging to the vertical walls of buildings to avoid stormy conditions before they reached Britain.

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RSPB asks government to ensure developers build bird boxes into new homes amid fears swift numbers are plummeting

Helena Horton

9 MAY 2019 • 6:00AM

The RSPB has urged the government to ensure developers build bird boxes into new homes amid fears swift numbers are plummeting.

The small bird, whose distinctive wings make it look almost like an arrow in flight, nests in nooks and crannies in buildings after flying over 6,000 miles from Africa in the spring.

They are one of the fastest birds in the world, able to reach up to 70mph and often not touching the ground for up to three years at a time.

Numbers of the animal have dwindled to fewer than 90,000 pairs, down from 150,000 pairs two decades ago.

Swifts are an urban species of bird which use spaces in rooftops or in old buildings to make their nests. The species has seen this serious decline in numbers partly because modern building methods can eliminate the swifts’ access to rooftops and as old buildings are demolished so reducing available nesting sites.

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Boxes added to Cowley homes to save swifts

23rd April

By Erin Lyons Reporter

BOXES have been added to Cowley houses in a bid to help a species of endangered birds.

The aim is to provide additional nesting spaces for swifts – known as a ‘master of the sky’ – which have seen numbers plummet in recent years, falling by more than half between 1995 and 2015.

This is largely due to a loss of suitable nest spaces as old buildings are renovated or demolished, with new buildings often lacking the crevices the small birds use.

Twelve of the bespoke boxes have now been installed on properties in the Clive Road and Maidcroft Road area, with more set to be added.

Cowley councillor David Henwood used his ward budget to fund installing the boxes, with nine coming from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and three home made.

Mr Henwood worked with Florence Park Low Carbon and Environment on the project.

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Campaign to build more swift nesting sites in Brighton

12th March

By Hsin-Yi Lo  @hsinyilo Reporter

ANIMAL lovers are calling for the installation of more nesting sites for swifts to help stem their declining numbers.

In just a few months’ time, these small birds will be making their epic 6,000-mile journey from Mozambique to the UK.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is spearheading a campaign to convince Brighton and Hove City Council to build nesting spots such as swift bricks or boxes on new housing developments outlined in its City Plan.

Activists argue there are not enough nesting places in the city and say it is cost efficient to set them up.

The birds stay in the UK for a short time between May and August.

Chloe Rose, South East conservation officer for the RSPB said: “Swifts are a key focus of our work in Brighton and Hove due to their rapidly declining numbers and the fact that they are solely reliant on urban habitats to nest in.

“Having the stipulation within the City Plan for swift bricks to be installed in all new housing developments would give swifts ongoing security, and protect this species for generations to come.

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Swifts ride air currents to catch a free lunch

November 19, 2018, The Company of Biologists

Once an adult swift (Apus apus) leaves its breeding colony and takes to the air migrating south, it won't touch down again until returning home to nest 10 months later. "Common swifts are exceptional in their level of adaptation to aerial life," says Emmanuel de Margerie, a biologist from the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) at the University of Rennes, France, adding, "Foraging, sleeping, preening and all other daily activities are performed in mid-air, day after day, week after week." So, when de Margerie decided to learn how the expert aviators manoeuvre in their aerial domain, he contacted biomechanist Tyson Hedrick from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, who snapped up the opportunity. "Their basic flight capabilities have been well studied in wind tunnel experiments," says Hedrick. However, birds in wind tunnels never share the sky with others or contend with unexpected gusts of wind. de Margerie had filmed swifts soaring and swerving while foraging to feed their chicks and the movies provided the ideal opportunity to find out how much exertion it takes to keep an acrobatic swift on the wing in real life. They publish their discovery that swifts essentially hitchhike on rising currents to make their flight costs almost zero in Journal of Experimental Biology.

But the unique footage was not collected with a conventional camera. Mounting a pair of angled mirrors either side of a camera, with a third mirror in front of the lens to collect the reflections from the wide-set mirrors, de Margerie was able to film a pair of simultaneous movies—each from a slightly different perspective—which he could then analyse to perfectly reconstruct individual swift motions in 3-D. "The current device is cumbersome," says de Margerie, admitting that it takes time to learn how to track the swifts' tortuous flight paths. "After some training, our undergraduate student Cécile Pichot was the most skilful at continuously following foraging swifts for relatively long flight times of up to 6 minutes," he says.

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RSPB urges Oxford residents to help boost ailing swift population

16th June

Pete Hughes

BIRD lovers are being encouraged to take steps to try and boost Oxford’s ailing swift population.

The bird – known as a ‘master of the sky’ – has seen numbers decline by more than half between 1995 and 2015.

For swift awareness week, which starts today, the RSPB is urging residents to help boost the food and nesting options available for the bird in a bid to make the city more habitable.

Emily Seccombe, Oxford Swift City project officer, said people can help by putting up a nestbox or growing wildflowers to attract flying insects - a swift’s main source of food.

She added: “Swifts are urban nesting birds; they make their nests in the cracks and crevices under tiles or in stonework.

“A major cause of swifts’ decline is the loss of nest spaces in buildings, due to demolition or renovation of old buildings.

“Modern buildings often lack the spaces that swifts need.”

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'Swift' action to provide bird homes for Lewisham swifts thanks to firefighters

Joe Dempsey

Protected birds are getting help from both firefighters and housing groups to give them their own homes on Lewisham houses.

Housing provider Lewisham Homes has teamed up with local conservation group Lewisham Swifts to provide special bird boxes for swifts to create nests in.

The bird boxes are being placed on houses in Wynell Road in Forest Hill and Dacre Park South in Lee.

London Fire Brigade were needed to install the bird homes right at the top of each house, parking the fire engines right up by the houses to use the ladder to get right up into the top corners.

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Wing shape helps swifts glide through storms

August 23, 2017

They are among nature's best fliers, spending most of their time in flight … now scientists have shed new light on how swifts can glide with ease, whatever the weather. A new study suggests that the aerodynamics of swifts' wings enable them to adapt effortlessly to sudden changes in wind speed and direction.

The wings' crescent shape lessens the effects of blustery conditions, helping to stabilise them as they glide during turbulent weather, researchers say. This means swifts – which eat, mate and even sleep on the wing – are not forced to use up vital energy to stay on course.

Model wing

Scientists at Edinburgh constructed a triangular model wing with the characteristic trailing edge shape of swifts' wings. They studied its aerodynamic properties by fitting it into a water flume that simulated airflow during flight. Using a laser sheet and a digital camera, researchers tracked the movement of tiny glass balls in the water, to reveal how air flows over the wing.

Results showed for the first time that as air passes over the wing, it can form into two or three circulating regions of airflow – known as leading-edge vortices, or LEVs. In aircraft with triangle-shaped wings – including Concorde – LEVs can generate extra lift, researchers say.

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Bird 'backpacks' to uncover swift secrets

Last modified: 30 June 2016

A new project to find out where migrant birds forage in Northern Ireland has taken flight, thanks to a partnership between RSPB Northern Ireland, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Northern Ireland Swift Group.

In a first for conservation science in Northern Ireland, this summer dozens of swifts will be fitted with tiny GPS ‘backpacks’ in a bid to shed light on key feeding areas- something which has previously been impossible to monitor.

During June and July, experts will safely re-capture the swifts, some of which have been previously tagged as part of a BTO and NI Swift Group migration study, to fit them with newly-developed miniature tracking devices which weigh less than one gram.

Being used for the first time in Ireland, and building on work carried out by the BTO over the previous two summers, these devices will record the locations of the swifts at approximately hourly intervals with an accuracy of just a few metres, revealing the feeding behaviour of nesting swifts in unprecedented detail.

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RSPB calls for swift action!

Posted on: 16 May 2015

The public have been asked to help the RSPB build up a clearer picture of the number of Common Swifts across the country.

Swifts travel around 12,000 miles every year from Africa to Britain and Ireland to feed and breed. They are aerial acrobats, swooping high through the skies with distinctive scythe-shaped wings. In fact, they are such adept fliers that they eat and sleep on the wing, not touching the ground unless they are nesting.

Common Swifts like to nest in the cracks and crevices of buildings, high up in the eaves. They pair for life, meeting up each spring at the same nest site which is ‘renovated’ and reused year after year. Unfortunately, as old buildings are fixed up or demolished, these sites are often lost which means that it can be difficult for a displaced pair to find a suitable replacement site in time to lay eggs and raise a brood, before it’s time to head back to warmer climes in August.

The population of swifts in the UK has declined dramatically in recent years and, as a result, the species is now Amber-listed (of medium conservation concern). In order to help them, the RSPB wants to know where they’ve been seen and where they're nesting.

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Bird enthusiasts in East Lancashire asked for help

BIRD enthusiasts from across East Lancashire are being asked to help halt the decline of the UK’s most acrobatic and spectacular birds.

Swallows, swifts and house martins have all decreased in number over the past 30 years because of pesticides killing off insects and building renovations giving them fewer places to nest.

They are on the ‘amber list’ for birds of conservation concern and swifts are on Lancashire Biodiversity Partnership’s ‘long list’ of endangered species in the region.

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire has made efforts to create a habitat for one of the family with its new purpose-built sand martin walls at Brockholes in Samlesbury.

Alan Wright, from the trust, said: “Specialist bird boxes can help to provide homes and give you some wildlife excitement over spring and summer.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/10509348.Bird_enthusiasts_in_East_Lancashire_asked_for_help/