Following our successful first city-wide survey last year, which helped identify 76 nest sites for Brighton Swifts, we are now planning our 2018 survey, which aims to build on the data gathered last year and to work to protect and expand existing colonies.

We’ll be looking to do deeper work in our ‘hot-spot’ areas as well as cover some areas not included last year. We need new volunteers to join our group of experienced surveyors from last year to help us survey swifts in Brighton during May-July to help reverse the significant decline in populations.

If you live in the Brighton & Hove area and would like to help protect these fantastic birds please check out our volunteer swift surveyor role here or contact john.cuthbert@rspb.org.uk for details.

Swifts are now Amber listed as Birds of Conservation Concern and their decline is principally due to changes humans have made to their nesting sites in man-made buildings. Many changes have taken place since I took over the paperwork 10 years ago.

SOS member Graham Roberts was very active during the 1980s and 1990s in helping to conserve Swifts and carried out surveys which showed many towns and villages in Sussex held strong numbers of Swift colonies. Towns like Petworth, Horsham and Lewes held really high numbers of breeding Swifts, many in Church towers.

During the last 20 years many houses and buildings have been re-roofed and plastic soffits have replaced wooden ones so that Swifts have been unable to return to their former sites.

Now in the age where news can be exchanged quickly through computers and social media many organisations, including the RSPB are highlighting the need to stop this decline and encourage local people to take care of their local breeding Swift population. The RSPB are setting up Swift cities and in 2017 Brighton did their first Swift survey to ascertain which buildings Swifts were using and where.

I am now handing over this job as Swift Champion to Ray Jones whose passion for Swifts will continue to enthuse and guide everyone to put up boxes and investigate planning applications to see if Swift Bricks can be incorporated into houses, industrial buildings, and office blocks (Developers like to feel they are being eco friendly).

If you have Swifts breeding in your local village or town please see if you can set up a local group of fellow Swift enthusiasts. Speak to neighbours and friends and find where the birds have nested in 2017. Putting nest boxes around existing Swift colonies is the first step to helping these birds find nesting places when they return in 2018.

More help and advice can be obtained by contacting Ray and myself at swifts@sos.org.uk

Audrey Wende

Swifts nest in buildings in our towns and villages. They are urban birds and we want to help them by conserving existing nest sites as well as creating new ones. Each year we have scores of Swift records telling us how many, where and when, but this does not give us exact details of which buildings they are using. These records have either one-km or tetrad grid references which is too large an area for us to take action to ensure their nest sites are conserved. If possible please –

If you find a party of Swifts screaming around your town or village please create a record of this and include in the Notes section of your record (BirdTrack, Record Capture or whatever recording system you are using) the address where you have seen them using. Thus a note could read “about 12 birds chasing each other and screaming round the High Street in the evening. Such a record will then give us a chance to narrow down where to look for their nests. If you can find out which property they are nesting in you could add a note to your record such as “nesting under the eaves at the front of 36 High Street, (town name)”.

We are in the process of beefing up our activities to conserve Swifts in Sussex. A really big push by everyone over these summer months to include in the Notes section of your Record the addresses where you see parties of Swifts screaming around at roof top height which will denote that they are nesting nearby. This will provide us with a really good foundation for future Swift Conservation efforts.