Swifts

[MissMarplesNiece]

How are the Swifts round by you this year?

I noted in my nature diary last year that they had returned on May 11th. This year I haven't seen or heard any. DH told me he'd seen some on his way to work last week, and someone in a local wildlife group said the Merlin app had picked up Swifts flying over a local park, but I'm quite worried by not seeing or hearing any at all yet.

There are 10 nesting boxes at DCs school & 8 are occupied apparently. I was watching 6 wheeling about the sky at school pick up a few weeks ago.

We hardly had any last year, but in the last couple of weeks I’ve seen several of them over the house. I love seeing them and hearing their calls.

They have been flying over ours and screaming for a few weeks now. Absolutely love to see and hear them. My favourite birds and such a determined little thing

I'm really missing them, for me they are one of the sounds of summer.

I noticed ours for the first time last week. I'm not sure if that's earlier or later than previous years, but, yes, definitely one of the sounds of the summer.

I’ve been seeing them over our road for a few weeks now. Saw the Swifts first and then swallows a week or so later.

Lots near me. Down by the river near tall trees and open fields. I was just looking up there were at least 20 or 30 in the sky around dusk this evening.

Saw my first this year on 02 May but I'm seeing fewer than last summer.

I started hearing them a few weeks ago but there seem to be fewer than previous years. Maybe the younger ones haven't turned up yet - apparently the mating pairs arrive first.

Norfolk: I noticed the first swifts around 3 May which I feel is very very early.

Unbelievably, I spotted my first swift on 29th April this year, which is the earliest I've ever seen them. Love the little blighters

ETA: NE coast of England here

I saw some a few days ago - NW England , can’t remember exactly where

Mid west Ireland - our town has some medieval ruins that provided nest sites and the 'scream in the sky' from the swifts is a feature of summer. I was enjoying hearing them yesterday.

We’ve not had swifts for a couple of years, but they are here now. I saw a couple about a fortnight ago, and yesterday there were swarms of them! Really pleased. I’ve also seen a couple of housemartins for the first time in several years.

Merlin said there was a sparrowhawk yesterday, but I didn’t see it, so maybe it was hallucinating, or the songthrushes have added something convincing to their repertoire.

ETA NW England.

Sad to say that we have only two nesting pairs in our swift boxes this year, and I am seeing and hearing far fewer everywhere. ☹️ I'm typing this in bed and in other years, I would be hearing them screaming outside the window, where some nest boxes are placed.
None in the local market town, where you can usually see them in the Main Street, and none nesting in the cathedral spires in the nearest city, where there are usually loads.

Still no Swifts where I live. Its quite worrying.

We have about 9 or 10 zorping around this year, which is more than in recent years. I can't tell if they are nesting in our barn, but I've seen them fluttering around the gable end at times.

Feeling fairly positive although I can't believe Parliament voted against compulsory swift bricks in new builds.

This is our first summer in this house, in our last place we were rural and had swifts. One of the things that worried me about moving was that we moved to a more built up area, albeit on the edge of town, would we still get swifts? To me they are summer themselves. I am very pleased to report that we have an abundance of the noisy buggers and I love it!

I agree @TonTonMacoute , this Government seem to not care at all about the natural environment. I wrote to my MP and the Housing Minister about their decision not to make Swift bricks compulsory in new builds. I think it was stiffled at committee stage. I haven't had a reply from either of them.

I didn’t know about the decision not to make swift bricks compulsory or I should certainly have asked my MP to vote for them. Rats.
How could they justify that?

This is the reason that the Gov dropped the amendment about making Swift bricks compoulsary:

Housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, told the House of Commons committee: “We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement.”

A "Swift Brick" costs £35.

Friends recently demolished an old shippon on their farm to build a little house for an elderly dependent, and the environmental hoops they were made to jump through cost them thousands of pounds. Bat surveys, bat boxes, sparrow terraces you name it.

The farm had been quite neglected before they bought it 4 years ago, so it has wonderful hedgerows and trees and is rich in wildlife.Yet the mass house builders can get out of nearly all of this stuff, it's crazy.

Apparently week beginning Sat 28th June is Swift Awareness week. RSPB have organised some Swift focused events around the country.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/swift-awareness-week?utm_source=notes_on_nature_20250621&utm_medium=email&utm_term=notes_on_nature&utm_content=14&utm_campaign=notes_on_nature

The issue is that swift bricks are such a specific requirement, it doesn't fit well in the national planning policy which is far more general. More specific requirements are usually made by in the local planning policy rather than national, and some local councils do have adopted Local Plan policies / supplementary guidance requiring swift bricks. Despite what I've said here I've heard MPs are still in favour of it being included in the national planning policy framework though, which is currently being revised, so watch that space.

I've only just got my eye in on the local swifts, so I can't compare across years, but there are 3 nest areas around town and I hear and see 6-10 wheeling around every evening.