Fantastic swifts

i have stood in awe of swifts for the last few weekends. they have been sweeping past with ease, some have been below my eye level!



let's face it, if you could fly, would you want to touch the ground again?

I have had Swifts nesting in my eaves now for the last 11 years. But last year 12 left and only three came back this year to our local swift community. Thankfully mine were amongst them and they are nesting now. They arrive on May the 1st as regular as a clock and leave on August the 1st.

I wonder if anyone could help? We live in Sussex and had about seven swifts arrive this year on May 15. Every year we have about seven and they nest in the roof. They usually leave in August.

However, they have disappeared already! We found one in the garden unfortunately it had died (I imagine it had fallen and could not get up).

But have no idea where the others have gone. The disappeared around May 28.

Can anyone help? Is this normal behaviour? We are very worried about them.

Not about swifts. Housemartins & Swallows in North Perthshire since 21st May, at least. North wind and volcano do not seem to have stopped them.

i watched your programme tonight and in the past years we have had nests of swifts in our guttering, this year we have three nests.

we have been watching house martins for the last week or so they have rebuilt an old nest in the eves of our house there are also quite a few flying about the sky around our house at least 30. we are in south wales

This isn't about swifts..but I was so relieved to hear ,on this evenings programme that swifts, martins and swallows are slow returning, as our first swallow appeared on April 14th,but since then only 3 others have we spotted. We have lots of old barns & sheds & can have as many as 7or 8 swallow nests a season. I like to think that those that come back are "our" swallows & failure to return means some catastrophe has overwhelmed them. I shall be scanning the skies with hope now.

We moved to our present address in 1970 and have always had swifts in our area. They usually arrive back around the 9 th May this year they came in like the red arrows on 30th April the earliest I can recall. I counted 8 this evening and believe there is a nesting in our neighbours roof.

My village has been "occupied" by swifts for the past month. They especially like the ivy which covers a neighbour`s walls and the guttering of aanother house. Every year they nest here and are so delightful! I live at Eyam.

After the 1st swallows on the 6 April, a few of our swifts came home to our roof on 26th April. Then it went cold and on the 9th May, our swifts "went mad" and in the evening another group arrived. It was briefly warmer then. In our village not many other houses had seen their swifts come back. Finally, yesterday (2nd June)the warmer weather came back. Again in the morning our swifts went mad and by the eveing the village skies were full of screaming swifts. Some making two of three attempts to get into the roofs. It just wouldn't be summer without our swifts. Warden Jenny

I have lived at my present address here in West Sussex for three years now and each year the swifts have come back and nested under both the front and back eaves of my house. I havent counted how many there are but there seem to be more this year. I first heard them on 26th April so the swift community here in Steyning is thriving. I wonder at the swooping and screeching and am always amazed at the way they are so accurate when diving back under the eaves to feed their young. My partner, who is a lighting camerman!! has promised that next year he will rig up a camera system so we can watch their progress on a monitor. Mind you I have been asking him to do this for two years now!!!! We will see...... Christine



ps: Love the programme.

Glad to see the BBc finally mention swifts. How about some more in depth footage? The Oxford Swifts aren't far from you chaps & there's also the Ely swifts project. The expert to speak to is Edward Mayer of London swifts.....he's done loads to help them, just check out his site.



Please also mention something about roof repairs reducing the nest sites.

Today I have the first swift young in the roof above the kitchen door. Their muffled screams for food are being answered by the parents arriving every few minutes. It is a corner where the swifts are often early arrivals and it has paid off this time. We are in for some very early morning screaming from now on!



It would be nice to see a video of a parent landing at the eaves IN SLOW MOTION, please. Stills show that they put their feet frontwards just before they get to the roof.

Watching the show on wed 2nd, I spotted Chris's T-shirt, with a neat print featuring swifts and fighter planes... I've often thought of these little birds as such, as they scream in packs along the road...



any clues where he got it from???

I am fortunate to have a family of foxes living in my garden. I get up at 5.30. to watch them returning home from their travels. I can also see them on sunny days playing in the garde in the evening. They are truly slendip.

We have swifts that nest in the house at the end of the street every year and I always see it as a true sign of summer when I see and hear the first swifts of the year. I love watching them in the back garden darting overhead a bit like mini raf pilots :)

I was suprised to hear that people hadn't seen as many swifts this year / that they were late because ours were here just after the first week in may as always and there is loads to be seen darting about now. It makes me feel quite privalaged to be able to sit and watch them every evening. They really are quite special!

no ''house martins, swifts, swallows ? '' i live near the resevours and there are usually plenty of evening insects for their consumption. there are some insects about but not in the usual numbers - I think where there is food ....thats where they are. have other springwatch viewers noticed any similar changes ?

Perhaps the decline of these birds is not helped by what happens to many of them as they fly over the Mediterranean. They are shot at, just like many other migratory birds. Added to that there is the loss of their winter habitat :(

The swift is my favourite bird of all - and we are lucky enough to have a pair nesting in our roof again this year. They've laid three eggs (but are only incubating two).

I have a webcam set up and this is streaming live pictures normally from 4pm to 10pm each night.

My wife thinks the swiftlets will hatch on 6th June - I think the 10th may be more like it.

A pair of house sparrows are also using the entrance hole to nest and are feeding chicks now (though they are not featured on the webcam).

Please feel free to have a look at the link below...

https://theblackrabbitwarren.blogspot.com/

Cheers

Doug Mackenzie Dodds

Saw your programme last night re the absent swifts/swallows. We have many of them still here in Cyprus.Later than usual. They are flying in large numbers, swooping and calling to each other. This is merely an observation as have no real knowledge of the birds!

Love the swifts too, we see our 1st swifts on April 25th love the noise they make

x

I've decided to believe in reincarnation, just so that I can come back as a swift when I die. My only reservation is that I am scared of heights/flying, and I wonder whether the swifts are too. They do, after all, scream rather a lot.