NEWS

23-07-2025

The swift season always seem to start off slowly and then gradually accelerate to an action packed frenzy of a finish: we are now in the middle of that frenzy of activity and, in really only a few days, they will all be gone.

So, what’s been happening? Well, the 3 chicks in Box 2 on the front of our house fledged last week and the 2 in Sarah & Andy Kinnear’s house further down The Street left a couple of days ago. This leaves 3 chicks in 2 boxes.

The two chicks in Box 4 have only a few days to go before they fledge and the inside of their box now rather resembles a family with teenage kids taking a holiday in a caravan that’s too small:

What can clearly be seen here is the plastic colour rings of the adults: AI is the female who is now in her 4th year of breeding and CT is her new partner for this year. They’ve done a great job though they may need to improve their crowd control skills!

Over in Box 22 on the back of our house the one remaining chick has been doing ‘wing-ups’ – the swift chick equivalent of press ups – to strengthen its wing muscles in preparation for the great outdoors:

There were 2 chicks in this box but, sadly, when we came to ring them a week or so ago, one was found dead. Not sure what happened – there was no visible sign of disease or injury and its weight was good – I guess this happens occasionally.

Ringing of both the adults and chicks is now complete and a big thank you is due to Sandy of Innocks Estate and Clare and Matt from Forthay for allowing me access to their gardens crazily early in the morning to catch the non-breeding adults in their boxes as they head out for the day – now that they’re ringed, we’ll know if it’s them if they return to breed next year.

Lots of you have reported seeing more swifts than ever this year with multiple reports of ‘banging’ (swifts landing on boxes with a bang to see if anyone’s at home) and going into boxes. This stuff happens so quickly it’s easily missed so here are 6 seconds outside our house the other morning slowed down to about one tenth speed with multiple swifts swooping past and one ‘banging’ one of the boxes:

Make the most of the remaining days of swifts in our skies – they’ll all too soon be gone!

06-07-2025

Having intended to post an update around once a week I’ve suddenly realised it’s nearly 3 weeks since the last one and the news is VERY exciting:-

It’s taken a while (and rather longer than I hoped) but I think we can finally say:

The Nibley Swift project is really taking off (pun very much intended).

We have four broods of chicks and a total of nine chicks all growing fast and making huge demands of their parents for food. Here are the eldest now nearly 4 weeks old and a couple of weeks from fledging:

A fourth box on our house has been occupied by a pair of birds every day for the last fortnight as has the second box on Sarah and Andy Kinnear’s house at the end of the terrace on the Street. It’s too late now for either pair to breed this year but it’s very likely they will next:

Likewise one of the boxes on Sandy Reavey’s house on Innock’s Estate has had two birds in it for the last week or so.

And Clare & Matt Allen report two birds regularly in one of their boxes down at Forthay.

Swifts have also been seen entering, amongst others, the boxes on Rosi and Martin Howe’s house on The Street and on Penny Momber’s house on Barr’s Lane

And, finally, almost by accident we discovered there are a pair of swifts nesting under the roof of the chapel which could have been there for years if not decades but had gone unnoticed!

This means we now have 7 known swift nests under roofs in the village and at least 8 boxes occupied which bodes very well for next year.

Several people have reported bigger numbers of swifts in our skies than in previous years – we have regularly counted between 15 and 20 over our house:

We have started coming around all the boxes to check for activity so will be coming round to yours in the next week or so.

And, last of all, ringing of the chicks and unrung adults has started and will continue over the next few weeks:

More news soon!

14-06-2025

It’s been a busy few days in Nibley Swift land:

The three eggs in Box 2 (the first to be laid) hatched about a week ago and the chicks are now growing rapidly:

Box 29 (on Sarah and Andy Kinnear’s house on The Street) now has at least two new born chicks in it:

There are at least 2 eggs in each of boxes 4 and 22 (both on our house at 36 The Street) which should hatch any day now. The pair who deserted box 3 last year have finally arrived back (six weeks late!!) and are busy primping their nest though it may now be too late in the season for them to breed this year:

There has been much activity from birds scoping out potential nest sites for next year. One of the other boxes on our house with a camera in it has had fairly regular visits over the last few days with the bird only staying for a couple of minute each time – some particularly good views here:

And down at Pitt Court there has been similar activity though this time it was birds trying to get into house martin nest boxes which they find quite tricky (thanks to Steve Penfold for this video clip):

More news soon!!

03-06-2025

Welcome to Nibley Swifts updates 2025. Although the start of these has been delayed the swift season hasn’t. Here’s a summary of the story so far:

The first bird in one of the boxes with cameras arrived on 2nd May – a full week earlier than last year – and was joined the next day by its partner. These have since been identified as the same pair as last year (colour rings AK & BC).
The pair on Sarah & Andy Kinnear’s house arrived on the 7th (both birds unringed so a different female from last year but probably the same male which wasn’t ringed in 2024)
Two more pairs arrived over the following week – both same female but with new male partners!
So, we have 4 pairs in boxes with cameras and all are now siting on at least two eggs (they start incubating after the last egg is laid so there may be 3 in each).
Last year we had 5 pairs in boxes with cameras but, who knows, the 5th may have moved house this year.
In recent days there have been reports of large numbers of swifts in the sky over the village – up to thirty – so the chances are good for further occupied nests being found later when I check them later this month
Meanwhile here’s footage of the pair in box 29 preening each other. These guys spurned the ready made feather lined nest cup I provided and built their own nearer the entrance (and the camera). This means they are often facing the camera which is very thoughtful of them!
More news soon.

12-08-2024

Taylor has fledged!!

The last few days have been busy ones for the one remaining chick named Taylor by the Kinnears whose house the nest box is on:

Lots of strength building ‘wing press ups’ (swift pilates) to do:

Which is obviously quite tiring:

Then, on Saturday, the last was seen of the parents:

And Taylor was all alone, with just time for a few more press ups:

Before, at around 7:45pm on Saturday evening he/she took to the skies:

And the box was empty:

And, in a moment, the 2024 Nibley Swift season had ended!!

05-08-2024

The swift season is rapidly coming to a close with two out of the three clutches having fledged in the last week or so and the last one due to fledge in the next few days:

The trio of chicks in Box 3 (on the front of our house) left on 26^th July. As with all young swifts, once they’re gone they’re gone: they don’t come back to the nest and as far as we know they immediately head south to spend the next couple of years in the hot skies in sub-Saharan Africa before returning north to look for a nest site.
This is pretty amazing as they have spent their whole lives since hatching in the nest and then, in a moment, that is over and they swap it for a life in the sky.
The two chicks in Box 22 on the back of our house were ringed on the same day the ones in Box 3 left (26^th July ):

They fledged last week one on 31^st July and the other on 1^st August.
What was slightly odd about this brood was that the adults (i.e. the parents) seem to have left a couple of days before the chicks did. This is not something we’ve seen before as, normally, the parent stay on for a few days after the chicks leave to feed and rest and recuperate.
A little research revealed that the chicks stop eating a couple of days before they fledge in fact this is a sign for chicks being rehabilitated approaching being ready to fledge.
So, quite why the parents normally stay on until after their children has gone is something of a mystery.
We did manage to capture the last moments before the second chick fledged:

This may not seem the most dramatic bit of film ever but remember this is the final moments in the nest for a bird that has never flown before and once it leaves it will be on the wing continuously for nearly two years so it is, actually, quite a moment.
Finally, Taylor (the single chick in the box on the Kinnear’s house on the Street) is progressing well and will fledge in a few days’ time:

27-07-2024

So, what’s been happening in Nibley swift world over the last couple of weeks:

The 3 chicks in the box on the front of our house have been ringed with the help of one of my trainee ringers Megan who said it was just the best thing ever:

The two chicks in the box on the back of the house have gown big and strong and are now even more ‘enthusiastic’ when a parent arrives with food:

Taylor is also growing rapidly and is now starting to look much more like a swift – seen here with mum (or dad):

Box checking is continuing – no more nesting swifts found so far which is no great surprise but we travel hopefully!
Finally, and perhaps most encouraging of all, a big gang of swifts (25-30) has been seen often of an evening high over Barrs Lane swooping and screaming – fabulous!!
More news soon.

08-07-2024

The recent, shall we say, rather changeable weather has had an impact on nesting swifts. They are entirely dependent for food on catching flying insects so, if there are few of those or the weather is so bad flying becomes difficult, food can become scarce.

Swifts are well equipped for these downturns in the weather with both adults and young able to go into a kind of torpor when they become very inactive and thereby burn less fuel. This slows down the rate of growth of the chicks but means they can survive for quite long periods with little or no food. This behaviour has been evident on all 3 remaining nest box clutches with adults in the nest for long periods and the young growing more slowly. This is perfectly normal and both parents and offspring will be fine as long as this doesn’t go on for too long.

The chicks on the front of our house are now around 3 weeks old and really starting to look like swifts: PHOTO

The ones in the box on the back of our house are 10 days to 2 weeks old and are starting to treat their parents quite aggressively when the latter return with food:

A couple of interesting things to note here:

After feeding the bigger chick, about 30 seconds into the video, the adult moves to the back of the box to feed the smaller one.

You’ll see that this is quite a tidy box: watch what the adult does about 1 minute into the video to see how this is done!!

Finally, Taylor is currently shunning publicity as he/she still looks most like an oven ready chicken but the Kirmond ‘swiftarazzi’ managed to get this shot:

Although feathers are yet to start growing, Taylor is now about twice the size he/she was a week ago.

We have started our rounds inspecting boxes to see if there’s been any swift activity in them – so far with no luck but there are plenty more to look at – if we haven’t got to you so far expect a visit soon.

26-06-2024

Lots has been happening over the last couple of weeks so here’s a summary:

What looked like it was going to be a really successful year for the swifts and their boxes has now become a ‘good in parts’ one:
- Eggs were laid in FIVE boxes (as against the three of the last couple of years) and we have our first nesting on a box that’s NOT on our house
- However, one of the two eggs in the Kinnear’s house on The Street got predated, not sure by what but it had a large puncture hole in it and was empty.
- This was rather sad as they’d already named the two chicks Jonathan and Taylor (think about it!!) so I’m afraid Jonathan came to a rather premature end maybe at the hands of a particularly vindictive Lilliputian.

But the good news is Taylor is doing fine though it might be a few weeks before he/she is ready to do a world tour as he/she has yet to actually hatch (expected any day now):

His/her parents are currently pretty relaxed in advance of the hatching:

Then, about a week ago, the adults in two of the other four nests chucked their eggs out. Whilst this is not unknown behaviour either by accident (swifts are pretty clumsy on their feet!) or on purpose (if the male thinks another male fertilised the eggs) this has been reported at many sites around the country this year with about 40% of eggs lost (normally losses from this cause are less than 10%).
- This has happened before (apparently 2011 was a bad year for it) and nobody is entirely sure why it happens but it may be the protracted poor weather we had through late May and early June meant the adults ‘concluded’ the chances of successful fledging were so poor there was no point carrying one. Shame they couldn’t have waited a few more days as now the weather is perfect.
But the news is not all bad:
- We have 4 young and one egg in the three remaining nests.
- And there has been much prospecting activity with 5 of the 6 boxes on Rosi & Martin Howe’s house next to ours visited in the last few days. This is exciting because these were among the first boxes to go up (during the 2020 lock down) and it’s the first time swifts have gone into them so looking good for next year!

At least THREE birds have been involved maybe more:

Trying to be philosophical about the nest failures, swifts are relatively long lived for birds of their size (average lifespan 9 years as against, say, a blue tit average around 2 years) so, I guess, it’s more important the adults stay healthy and survive to breed next year than it is to raise chicks this.

The other piece of bad news is I’m afraid there won’t be a livestream this year. I have 3 cameras that can be live steamed but 2 of them were in the boxes where the eggs were thrown out so are now empty and the third refuses live stream despite my best efforts. Instead, I’ll try to post regular picture and videos of progress with the 3 remaining broods.

More news soon.

10-06-2024

A quick update on progress in the world of Nibley Swifts:

The house sparrows who evicted the swifts from one of the boxes on the terrace on The Street now have six chicks.
However, the REALLY exciting news is that the evicted swifts did the sensible thing, moved in next door and currently have 2 eggs.
This is fabulous as it represents the first of the boxes NOT on our house to be nested in and, we hope, is the beginning of much more widespread swift nesting around the village.
And, if that wasn’t enough a fifth box on our house now has at least one resident swift. This box was visited briefly last year and it may be a bit late for it/them to lay this season but it’s still great news.

*The latest arrival poses for the camera!*

This means there are now at least 5 and possibly 6 boxes being nested in. We are aware of 5 perhaps 6 ‘natural’ swift nests around the village (i.e. under roofs) so this means Nibley Swifts has now more or less doubled the village’s breeding swift population – AMAZING!
To attract more birds to more boxes for next year we have now deployed sound systems around the village playing the swift call which works so well to attract the non-breeding birds looking for a nest site.
Over the winter I talked to someone who knows far more about swifts then I ever will and when I said we had 12 sound systems around the village last year he thought that was perhaps a bit over enthusiastic and might actually confuse the swifts into not knowing quite where to target for a potential nest site. So this year I’ve limited it to 6 around the core of the village – Stancombe View, The Street, opposite The Black Horse, Barrs Lane, Hunts Court and Pitt Court. We’ll see what happens!!

More news soon!

28-05-2024

As many of you will have noticed, our skies are once again filled the sights and sounds of spring and the swifts started appearing in early May. I’ve waited until now to send an update mostly so that there’d be more to say than just ‘They’re back’.

The main highlights so far this year are:

First 2 birds seen overhead on 6^th May (maybe a few days later than might be expected but more of less on time)
First bird seen entering a box on 11^th May
And the current situation is:
- The same 3 boxes on the front of our house as last year are occupied again and two already have eggs (3 & 2)
- The box at the back of our house which was prospected last year is now occupied which is great news as it’s the first of the boxes put up 2 years ago to be used.
- Not quite such good news is the other box we had high hopes for (on the terrace on The Street) has been taken over by House Sparrows who now have eggs or young and, whilst swifts will evict sparrows in the early stages of nest building, it’s too late for that to happen now.
  However, it may be that the swifts who were interested there will have nested in a box elsewhere in the village – we’ll see when we come round to inspect all the boxes in a couple of weeks.
- The other good (though non-swift) news is that we have SIX active Houe Martin nests on our house which is a record. When I checked at the weekend all had eggs (TWENTY FOUR in total) which should be hatching in the next few days and then there’ll be lots of activity with the adults bringing food every few minutes. If you’re passing, stop and have a look – we’re the house on The Street with the large ‘NIBLEY SWIFTS’ banner – hard to miss!!
The non-breeding swifts which will be looking for a nest site for next year are due any day so, before long, I will be contacting people to arrange to bring round the sound systems.
In the meantime, if you see any swift activity around your boxes and particularly if you see any birds going into any of them please let me know!!

More news soon.

14-08-2023

The last chick on box 3 fledged a couple of days ago: the first one had gone two days before that. That means all the nests are now empty and we look forward to 2024.

To summarise this year:

The same 3 boxes on our house as last year had successful broods and another six chicks have headed off to Africa (again the same as last year). What was different this year is that at least FIVE of the boxes I put up last year were visited this with varying degrees of nest building in each.

Whilst this is slightly disappointing in that we’d hoped at least one of the new boxes would have been nested in this year, as we keep having to remind ourselves, this is a long term project and it’s very common for nests to be occupied (but not nested in) one year and then the same birds return the following year to successfully breed.

The other noticeable difference this year (reported by several people) is more swifts seen in our skies around the village which is a very encouraging sign. Last year the largest flock I saw was of around 20 birds, this year I saw flocks of 30 or more on several days.

As all the boxes featured on the live stream are now empty, it’s been switched off until next May.

So, here’s looking forward to 2024 and, with luck, more breeding pairs.

05-08-2023

Here’s a brief summary of what’s been going on over the last couple of weeks:

· The 2 chicks in box 4 fledged on 21^st July

· For at least their last 10 days in the nest they were looked after by only one adult – obviously at some stage 2 adults were involved in the breeding process, it’s haed to say why the second parent left but it’s not unknown for one to leave early. The good news is the remaining parent did a great job getting their two offspring to fledge.

· However, it seems this took its toll as it spent the next 10 days feeding up and recovering: it roosted in the box every night until 2 nights ago and, I assume, has now headed south

· The 2 chicks in box 2 fledged a couple of days ago and their parents both left the same day.

· This leaves the 2 young birds in box 3 who have a week or 10 days more growing to do before they also fledge.

· There have been lots of screaming swifts in our skies with a maximum count of over 30 – definitely more than last year.

· But they also now seem to have left so those with swift call sound system can switch them off (just unplug the timer at the mains). I’ll contact you individually over the next week or so to arrange to pick them up to store for next year.

· In the end, none of the new boxes from last year or this were nested in (apart from by a few House Sparrow interlopers) but at least 6 were regularly visited by swifts looking for a nest site for next year so I’m optimistic that 2024 will see a considerable increase in the number of nesting birds.

18-07-2023

After a week or so of largely empty skies (due, I suspect, largely to the inclement weather) this morning the swifts were back with a vengeance: from around 7am onwards ten or more birds were literally absolutely screaming around our house, shouting at the adults in the nest boxes (who were shouting back enthusiastically/aggressively) and landing on various boxes (occupied and not) to have a look in.

Once all the call speakers positioned around the village came on around 8am it was noticeable they were buzzing our house for around 10 minutes before disappearing for a while I guess to zoom around other people’s houses in response to the call being played. If the weather stays as it is I suspect we may well get repeat performances each morning so, if you hear swifts calling LOOK UP!

In other news, the largest chicks are now nearly ready to fledge and spend long periods gazing out of the nest box hole at the great outdoors:

and the smallest chicks (about 3 weeks behind the largest ones) were ringed this morning and had very healthy weights: they may be only half grown but they already weight more than their parents!!

08-07-2023

A quick update on the Nibley Swifts:

We have now checked ALL the boxes that went up last year and, whilst at least 5 of them have been visited by swifts, there is no sign of any nesting in any of them.
Whilst this is disappointing it is not entirely surprising: we always knew it would probably take a couple of years for new nest sites to be established.
The good news is 3 of the 5 boxes are still being visited so the signs are optimistic for more nests on boxes next year.
The same 3 boxes on our house are inhabited and all 3 now have chicks.
Unfortunately, the streaming software I’m using this year to allow the split screen view of all 3 doesn’t allow recording so no edited highlight clips this year I’m afraid.
However, still photos are entirely possible so here’s a couple of recent noteworthy things:
As a parent, you can’t love your children enough:

However, this doesn’t mean they won’t climb all over you!

Also, the largest chicks are just getting to the ‘wing press up’ stage strengthening their wing muscles before they take to the air in maybe a couple of weeks:

More news soon

19-06-2023

It’s been some time since I updated what’s been happening so here is a quick summary:
2023 has been a strange season for swifts, some birds arriving when expected in early May but then about a fortnight’s gap (due to adverse weather in southern Europe) before the rest of the breeding birds arrived.
This means there is a considerable spread in the progress of the birds in our boxes (the ones on the live stream):
- Box 2 (top left of the live stream): 2 eggs which have hatched just this morning
- Box 3 (top right): 2 eggs due to hatch in around a week’s time

Box 4 (bottom left): 2 chicks who are now about a week old (one of the chicks can be seen here between the adults:

Swifts have been seen going into at least 4 of the 2022 batch of new boxes – 2 on the back of our house and 2 on the right hand end of the terrace on the street.
Although there has been nest building going on in all of these, there are yet to be any eggs in any.

Dried grass being brought into one of the boxes on the rear of our house

Relatively luxurious nest cup (for a swift) built this year.

There is just about still time for this to change but it’s starting to seem more likely that these will be nests with eggs and young next year rather than this.
In case, anyone was in any doubt as to which house in the village is ours and therefore Nibley Swifts HQ, there is now a big banner making it fairly obvious!

29-05-2023

It has been a slow start to the swift season this year partly because we were laid low by a virus for much of April meaning this year’s new boxes etc. are later going up than expected. Also, most of the swifts were late arriving probably due to weather conditions with many breeding birds only getting here in the last few days when they were expected early in the month.

But now we have lots of swifts here and there is good news:

The 3 boxes on the front of our house that were occupied last year have swifts in them again and, whereas last year we only had a nest box camera in one box, this year they are in all three and all 3 are now being live streamed – go to https://nibleyswifts.org/box-2-live-stream/
At least TWO of the boxes that were put up last year are occupied which is great news and there may be more that have yet to be discovered: swifts are showing interest in several of the new boxes on our house and elsewhere so, if you see any swifts entering your boxes, PLEASE let me know!

Talking to someone recently who has studied swifts for many years revealed that the nest box checks Aileen and I did on some of your boxes a few weeks ago were unlikely to tell us anything definitive. His view was that swift nests are so minimal it’s almost impossible to tell what’s a nest and what’s just a bit of grass brought in by a sparrow so wait until early June to check the boxes because then they will either be empty (i.e. not in use) or contain adult birds and/or eggs (i.e. in use!!).

So starting next week, we’ll be coming round all the boxes to do what we hope will be a definitive check. At the same time, we’ll bring round the sound systems to play the all important swift call. Most people who kindly hosted one of these last year will, if they’re willing, be doing so it again but I’ve put together more systems for the parts of the village that missed out last year. If you’re one the people I hope will host a system I’ll be in touch separately in the next few days.

04-05-2023

There have been reports of swifts locally and we saw 2 high over the village last Saturday but none have returned to the nest boxes yet.

We have now checked about two thirds of the boxes to look for nesting activity.

Most look like this inside:

i.e no different to the day they were put up!

A few look like this:

This is probably sparrows or blue tits roosting in the box over the winter and is unlikely to be swifts.

One looks like this:

This is almost certainly sparrows on a nest building frenzy.

But a few look like this:

or this:

which to me looks like swifts starting some nest building. As swifts have to collect nesting material whilst flying around their nests tend to be pretty minimal so it’s hard to know for certain at this stage but we may have up to seven new nests!

All are in The Street area which I guess is no surprise because it’s close to existing nest sites. I was surprised not to see any nest building in the boxes on Stancombe View where there was much swopping of birds last summer in response to the call being played but we’ll just have to keep playing the calls this year and hope for the best – it will take time but we are definitely heading in the right direction.

21-12-2022

And a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has so enthusiastically got involved and made Nibley Swifts far more successful then I ever imagined possible!

Here’s looking forward to 2023 and, hopefully, some nesting swifts in some of the boxes!

30-09-22

A quick thank you to David Chalmers for his very kind note in the latest On The Edge (North Nibley’s monthly newsletter):

Thank you David!

07-08-22

I’ve just checked the nest boxes on our house and the final chick has fledged – it was there on Friday morning as I could hear it doing its press-ups routine so it must have headed off yesterday morning or today.

Also, I’ve not seen any swifts in the sky for several days now so I think we can safely say the first season of Nibley Swifts is over!

And what a year it’s been:

From around 15 nest boxes on 5 different houses, there are now well over 80 on 30 houses;
3 broods with a total of 6 chicks fledged from the boxes on our house (that’s a 100% increase on last year’s 3 chicks);
Swifts have been seen taking an interest in the boxes in Pitt Court, Forthay, Barrs Lane, The Street and Stancombe View with birds landing on the boxes or even going inside for a look at several of these places;
There are at least 4 swift nests in the village under roofs – previously I’d only located 2 so that’s another 100% increase (although they may have been there all along and I just hadn’t spotted them!);
The live stream camera has been VERY popular (I hope you’ve enjoyed it!) with over 300 people having a look.

And what about next year:

Basically MORE OF EVERYTHING!
- More boxes – if you know of anyone who’s interested ask them to get in touch;
- More sound systems – these work EXTREMELY well with birds reported at all the sites where they were used and none where they weren’t;
- More cameras in boxes;
- And hopefully:
- More swifts and, specifically,
- More nesting swifts

Thanks to everyone who’s got involved – let’s look forward to 2023!!

27-07-22

A busy few days warrants a further update even though the last one was very recent:

The 3 chicks in the live stream box have fledged and are now on their way south to sub-Saharan Africa.
- Two left early on Sunday morning and the third early on Monday.
- This left the 2 parents who don’t leave with their children (and indeed may never see them again!). The adults usually stay for a few days to rest and feed up prior to setting off south themselves.

It looks like one adult left yesterday and the second this morning:

After all the action of the last couple of months this leaves a rather empty looking box. Whilst this is still more exciting viewing than most daytime TV, I’ll stop the live stream shortly but leave the edited highlights on the website in case anyone wants to have another look.
Also on the positive front, rumours that the prospecting birds have left were a bit premature.
- Few had been seen since last Friday making it seem likely we’d seen the last of them for this year.
- However, yesterday we had four zooming around the house all day and this morning a flock of around FORTY was very active.
- So, keep those speakers playing for another few days – we might as well take every opportunity to maximise the chances of nesting next year.
There is less good news about Steve the swift:
- You will remember he/she was found under a nest on The Street about 10 days ago and I fostered him with one of our families.
- Unfortunately, Steve turned out to be a ‘jumper’. Birds in the nest must have some mechanism that tells them when it’s time to leave (swifts usually leave the nest when they’re parents are out so unlikely it’s the adults telling them it’s time!). We don’t understand what this mechanism is but a few young birds seem to have a dodgy version of it which makes them try to leave the nest early. Sadly, Steve was one of these.
- We found him/her a couple of times on the tarmac under the nest box trying to make his escape on foot. Given that swifts have very long wings and very short legs it was unlikely he’d make it to the road never mind Africa.
- Then, a couple of days ago, I discovered she/he’d disappeared from the box and was nowhere to be seen so must have jumped again and crawled into the undergrowth or been taken by one of the local cats or something.
- This is a great shame but, consulting people who know far more about swifts than I do revealed that there’s not much else that could have been done short of hand rearing him. Whilst there are people who do this and do it successfully, it’s a pretty skilled job. This has prompted me to find out how it’s done so that, if this happens again in a future year, there may be a better option.

24-07-22

Apologies for the overly long gap between updates: it’s been a busy couple of weeks on several fronts.

News from the swifts:

The 3 chicks in the live web stream box are now fully grown and I expect them to fledge any day now.
- 5 fully grown swifts in a nest box is quite a squash as this video taken a few nights ago shows (‘There were five in the bed and the little one said….’):

Prior to fledging, the young birds strengthen their wing muscles by doing press ups:

The non-breeding adults screaming around the place looking for nest sites for next year have been VERY active in recent days with flocks of up to 30 seen over The Street, Stancombe View, Pitt Court and Forthay.
- They have been notably absent for the last couple of days which might mean they’ve headed south and we’ve seen the last of them for this year or they’ve just gone for the weekend somewhere else and will be back soon.
- For those who have them, it’s worth keeping the speakers playing the call for the next few days in case they return. I’ll get in touch when I’m sure they’ve gone for good for this year and arrange to collect back the speakers etc.
In one other piece of swift news, Steve Timbrell found a swift chick on the ground on The Street the other day.
- It looks like it had fallen out of a nest I know is in the roof of the house above where he found it. The hole into the roof is so small there’s no chance of getting it back in so I’ve fostered it with one of the broods of chicks in the nest boxes.
- Apparently, if matched with chicks of similar size/age, the adults will willingly act as foster parents so we’ll see what happens.
- More news on ‘Steve’ the swift’s progress when I have some.
- As you can see, he/she is a very handsome bird:

07-07-22

It’s been a busy week in Nibley Swift land:

The film star chicks in Box 2 have been growing at an incredible speed and I reckon now weigh as much as (or perhaps slightly more than) their parents. This means feeding time is even more frenetic than before:

The adults only return to the box every hour or so with a crop full of insects (see around 50 secs into the video – look for the bulge below the adult’s beak) as against swallows and house martins who are to and fro at the nest every few minutes with a small mouthfuls of flies.
Maybe this is why the adults returning to the nest causes such drama.
I’ve now caught the adults in this box:

It’s not safe to capture the adults INSIDE the nest as there’s always a risk of them deserting but outside (and it need only be just outside) is perfectly safe so I wait until I see an adult enter the box and then put the special ‘butterfly net on a stick contraption’ I’ve made over the nest box hole:

This is what the funny little brackets above the hole on your nest boxes are for – for the net to hang from!
When the bird reappears out of the box it falls straight into the net and I can ring and release it straight away.
I only do this once a year and it causes the bird little if any inconvenience but it does allow a picture of the birds’ life history to build up over a period of years
I only managed to ring one of the adults in this box last year so was expecting one ringed bird and one unringed one and this is what I got. However, the ringed bird WASN’T the one I ringed from the box last year – it was a bird I caught in the garden in 2020. So…..not quite sure what’s gone on there!!
There are 2 chicks in box 4 which I ringed this morning:

And a single chick in Box 3 which is about a week younger than these guys
Also, there has been ALOT of screaming swifts zooming around our house AND landing on or near the new boxes I put up this year.
This is very positive news for more nesting birds next year and is quite a thrilling spectacle with birds whizzing past barely above head height.
The next 2-3 weeks is high season for this behaviour so, if anyone else is seeing this around their house, PLEASE let me know.
If you have one of the sound systems it would be worth having it playing for more hours each day for the next 3 weeks (if you and your neighbours can stand it!!)
If you’d like me to come and reprogramme the timer to make this happen let me know.

28-06-22

The last couple of days have been quiet in terms of birds swooping around the houses playing the swift call but this seems to be a general thing as several other swift sites around the country have reported a quiet few days.

In the occupied nest on our house, however, things are starting to get interesting. The chicks in the box with the live stream are a couple of weeks old and are now left on their own most of the day whilst mum and dad are out hunting for flying insects to feed them.

This means that, most of the time, the live stream shows nothing more exciting that 3 swift chicks asleep. But then, every half hour or so, one of the parents comes back and what follows can only be described as a feeding frenzy. I managed to record this a couple of days ago:

The first 10 seconds is the calm that has prevailed for the previous half hour, and then the parent returns……….

These chicks are now big enough to ring so, earlier today, that’s what we did. This involves getting them out of the box briefly whilst the parents are away, putting a metal ring with a unique number stamped on it on one of their legs and then, before the parent returns, putting them back in the box.

We have to wait until the chicks at around 14 days old so that their legs are big enough for the ring to fit properly but they’re not big enough to get ideas of heading out into the big wide world early. Done properly, there is no risk to the birds and they were safely back in the nest within about 5 mins.

22/06/2022

There are some VERY positive signs at the moment with the birds nesting on our house progressing well and the first signs of interest in the boxes being shown in various places around the village:

The three nests in the boxes on our house are coming on nicely:
- The chicks in the live stream box are now about 10 days old and are being left for extended periods by their parents when they are out gathering food. This means the chicks can be seen.
- To our eyes they’re not the most beautiful creatures in the world but I’m sure their parents think they’re gorgeous and are certainly feeding them well.

They’ll fledge in a month or so’s time and, if all 3 survive, the box will be pretty full by then as it’s quite crowded now when both parenrts are home:

The eggs in a second box hatched yesterday (bits of egg shell left lying around) and the third pair are still incubating their eggs.
As with the live stream nest, it’s hard to tell how many eggs or chicks there are as the parents are such attentive incubators but all will become apparent over time.

Several people have reported interest from swifts in their boxes with birds swooping around at low level in Barr’s Lane, Forthay, Pitt Court and Stancombe View.
The next stage is actually landing at or near the boxes to investigate them further and this has been happening down at Pitt Court for the past few days.
The step after that is the birds actually going into the boxes to have a look and I’m hoping this might happen in the next week or so.
They’ll then start to make the inside ready for nesting next year.

11/06/2022

Well, today’s exciting news is the first of the chicks in the camera box has hatched!

Bits of egg shell have been visible on the live stream though the day so, although the adults have been keeping the chick(s) well hidden, we can be pretty sure at least one has hatched.

Also, there has been a flock of around 20 swifts showing an interest in the boxes down on Pitt Court so it looks like the second wave of birds looking for nest sites for next year (hopefully in some of the new boxes) are starting to arrive in numbers!

One other thing – several people have commented that, despite there being 6 pairs of nesting swifts on The Street you don’t see them around in the sky very much and have asked where they might be feeding. My ‘spies’ at Slimbridge tell me there is a feeding flock of over 100 swifts there most days so, since there are no breeding swifts on the WWT site, it seems likely our birds are feeding there. It’s around 9km as the swift flies from North Nibley to WWT Slimbridge and, as we know, swifts are quite…….well….swift so it’ll only take them a few minutes to make the journey and, if there’s more food there than here, the journey is well worthwhile.

31/05/2022

The breeding adults are now all back and well established.
We have 3 active nests on our house:
- the one with the camera (Box 2) in it has THREE eggs and the adults are now incubating them
- the one below it (Box 4) has eggs but the adults are such keen incubators I haven’t been able to work out how many eggs there are (yet!).
- the third pair (Box 3) have yet to lay but there’s plenty of time: eggs can be laid until nearly the end of June.
We think there are possibly 3 more swift nests in the roofs on the terrace on The Street but these are hard to identify at the moment as a bird will only come and go about once an hour – it will be easier to spot these sites once the young have hatched.
The live stream of Box 2 has been very popular with lots of views:
- If you’ve watched it for more than a few seconds you will have realised that, most of the time at the moment, not much is happening. In fact, until the bird incubating the eggs moves, it’s hard to tell whether the picture is actually live.
- However, two things are happening regularly and I’ve managed to capture both on video:
- Frantic preening and
- Shift changing which happens about once an hour. The adults share incubation the eggs fairly equally each spending half their time on the eggs and half out feeding.
The non-breeding birds who we hope will adopt some of the new boxes for next year are due any day.
Seven sets of playback equipment have now been deployed at strategic points around the village (where there are clusters of boxes) and these will play the swift ‘scream’ call for a couple of hours morning and evening to attract them.
So, if you think you hear swifts LOOK UP – unless you can see swifts you may be listening to the playback!

21/05/2022

THEY’RE HERE!!

After a delay due to bad weather in the Pyrenees, there was a massive arrival of swifts in the UK on Monday of last week and I can now report that THREE of the boxes on our house are occupied and one (Box 2) as of this morning has its first egg!

Swifts usually lay 2 eggs, occasionally 3 and I would expect them to hatch in about 3 weeks.

For your interest and entertainment, I’ve set up a live feed from a camera in the box with the egg which can be viewed here:

youtube.com/watch?v=BBY_LM_48q4&ab_channel=PeterKirmond

Here are the birds about to set out for a feeding trip:

Note that the camera was set up long before the swifts returned and won’t bother them in the slighest – it is great good fortune that I picked the box that now has an egg in it!

The adults are out feeding much of the time at the moment but, once incubation starts in earnest in a few days, one or other bird should be visible in the box most of the time and, of course, once the eggs hatch the young birds will be visible too!

03/05/2022

It’s been a busy few weeks at Nibley Swifts but I can report that ALL the boxes are now in place ready for the return of our swifts which should be any day now. There were, to my knowledge, fifteen swift boxes in the village prior to Nibley Swifts getting going. Now, thanks to everyone who has volunteered their houses for boxes, there are now well over EIGHTY!

Not satisfied with putting up seven twin boxes on ‘Super Tuesday’ (see below), Friday a couple of weeks ago (22nd April) became Fabulous Friday as (with Tim Andrews help) TWENTY boxes were installed – a twin and a single on his house, two twins on his barn and the THIRTEEN single boxes students at KLB had assembled in after school sessions over the last few weeks. This article from the School Newsletter shows them hard at work:

And the results of their labours on place on school buildings:

The swifts should be here in the next few days so there will be regular updates here to report on their progress.

22/03/2022

The response to my email less than 2 weeks ago has been tremendous and, as of today, 18 of the 28 twin boxes are already installed on people’s houses with most of the rest booked in for fitting over the next few days. We dubbed today ‘Super Tuesday‘ as no less than SEVEN have gone up. Here’s a montage of some of the places the boxes can now be found:

10/03/2022

Assembling the basic boxes has turned out to be the easy, quick bit! There was still quite a bit of work to do but, 10 days later, the boxes are finished, varnished and ready to be distributed around the village. Our younger daughter (who lives in Munich) is coming home for Easter in around a month’s time so I thought a good incentive for me to get on with putting all these boxes up on people’s houses would be to pile them up on her bed in the meantime:

Lucy Kirmond’s bed taken over by 28 twin swift boxes ready fortheir new homes

An email has gone out this evening to all those who expressed an interest in having a box asking them to get in touch to organise the fitting of their boxes and thereby contribute to making Lucy’s bed available for her to use when she get here.

28/02/2022

Work is under way getting all the boxes finished and up on people’s houses before the swifts arrive back here in early May.

It started this morning with an assembly session assisted by Chris Marlow:

By the end of an enjoyable morning we had the first 25 twin boxes put together:

22/02/2022

A news update emailed today to everyone who expressed an interest in getting some swift boxes

Recently, I’ve had several people ask me when they’re getting their swift boxes so I thought it was time for an update:

Following the item in the recent On The Edge even more people have contacted me interested in getting some boxes on their house.
This means the total for the village is now OVER EIGHTY!!
KLB (c/o Tim Andrews) are getting a big box of bits to make a load of boxes to go up around the school.
So, in total, there will be about ONE HUNDRED homes for swifts that will be up and available for occupation by the time they return in early May.
This is AMAZING!
On a more practical level, it has also meant another plywood order and much cutting and drilling.
But I can now report that all the components for the boxes are ready and, early next week, a couple of friends are coming round for a massive swift box assembly session.
This means, in a week or so’s time I will be ready to start putting the boxes up.
So:
- If you’re one of the few people who have expressed an interest in getting some boxes but I haven’t been round yet to work out the best site. I’ll be contacting you in the next few days to arrange this.
- For everyone else, I’ll be getting in touch soon to arrange putting up your boxes
- It would be useful if you could let me know if you’re going to be away for an extended period over the next couple of months so that I can schedule you in for when you’re here (this information will NOT be shared!).

That’s it for now!

03/12/2021

A Swift Update

There has been a fantastic response to the On The Edge article (see below) and I now have ‘orders’ for SEVENTEEN of the semi-detached swift boxes which will be sited all over the village.

Realising this means I have ALOT of work to do building them, this week I took delivery of plywood for 20 of the boxes:

…and just this morning some plaques I designed and had made have arrived which will elegantly ‘badge’ the boxes:

The inset emblem and text will be painted black to stand out and they are made of nickel so shouldn’t tarnish rust.

More updates to follow as things progress……

01/12/2021

Swifts join the RED LIST of British birds in danger

Published this morning is the latest edition of U.K. BOCC (Birds of Conservation Concern). This is published every 5 years and comes as no surprise that swifts have moved from the amber list to the RED LIST. The criteria for a species being on the red list is a fall in population of 50% or more in the last 25 years. Sadly, swfits passed this milestone several years ago so them becoming red listed was inevitable.

This has attracted considerable media attention which may well spur more people to lend a hand by putting up moreswift nest boxes and makes the Nibley Swift project even more timely. Thanks to everyonewho has responded to the On The Edge article – from summer 2022 North Nibley will be very much doing its bit to reverse the downward population trend of these iconic birds.

29/10/2021

On The Edge article

A full back page article is in this month’s On The Edge – North Nibley’s monthly village newsletter/magazine detailing the Nibley Swifts project and exorting people to getin touch and get involved: let’s see what the response is like!

21/10/2021

Orchard Revival S.O.S. (Save Our Swifts) Cider launched at Apple Appreciation Day

S.O.S. cider was officially launched today at the event at Whitminster Community Orchard (Pocket’s Orchard):

The label looks great and I’m sure the cider is just as excellent – Tim has promised me samples but I think has been so busy he hasn’t had chance to drop any round!

I gather the event was well attended so here’s looking forward to good sales!