Campaign week aims to tackle falling swift numbers

A campaign week is taking place in a bid to help halt the decline of swifts.

The migratory bird is a summer visitor to the UK after wintering 3,400 miles south in Africa.

The birds mate in the UK, but due to their nests in the eaves of buildings being blocked, the Derbyshire Swift Project said numbers were in decline.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is participating in a national awareness week, from Saturday until Sunday 7 July, to showcase the birds and their plight.

Swift Awareness Week co-ordinator Nick Brown, wildlife enquiries officer for the trust, said: "Swifts are interesting birds, they spend almost all of their lives on the wing and they only come to land when they lay their eggs.

"They gain access into older buildings in tiny holes in the eaves high up, but when older buildings are renovated those holes get blocked. Swifts have declined by 60%, mainly due to the blocking of their nesting places over the last 25 years.

"They're a bird in trouble."

To promote the conservation of swifts, which fly up to 69mph (111km/h) and rarely touch the ground, a series of walks are being held across the UK.

In Derbyshire, there are walks being held in Duffield, Rowsley, Derby and Melbourne.

A swift watching event in Hathersage and a swift stall in Bradwell are also planned.

Mr Brown says swift bricks are easy and cheap to install in newbuild houses, and swifts can then safely nest, even in residential areas and the centre of towns and cities like Derby.

He said: "Swifts are actually very quiet when they're in the nest, don't do much calling and they certainly don't make any mess.

"A lot of people that have swifts aren't even aware that they've got them."

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