Like night follows day, every Swift breeding season is characterised by the discovery that renovation work over the winter has blocked off Swift nest sites or a contractor erects scaffolding on a building with active Swift nests, so preventing their access. Both scenarios are distressing for the Swifts, and any […]
Despite pressure on government from the #FeatherSpeech campaign and others, to date there is no national legislation enforcing the mandatory inclusion of Swift bricks in new developments. At the local level, planning authorities can include such measures through planning policies such as the Local Plan and Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG)
Church belfries have long been recognised as a suitable location for Swift boxes as they provide a safe, weather-proof and elevated location for a large number of Swift nest sites. In Derbyshire, however, until recently, little use has been made of this resource despite many churches in the county being suitable
The Swifts of Rowsley have been under intense scrutiny for the past 3 years yet some of the information collected as part of this project happened by chance, rather than by design, and that in itself has led us to revise how we look at Swift conservation over the county
The village of Rowsley, situated at the confluence of the Derwent & Wye rivers in the Derbyshire Dales and located between the towns of Bakewell & Matlock and the Chatsworth & Haddon estates, has an interesting history linked to the numerous mills that lay along both rivers and the arrival
The Swift Local Network (SLN) is an informal body comprised of over 130 Swift groups located across the UK and Ireland. Members communicate via the swiftslocalnetwork Google Group and from time to time meet in person at SLN national meetings. In the past 7 years there have been 3 such
