“Today was a big day for members of the Sheffield Swift Network. For months, behind the scenes, we have been working hard to come up with a solution to a terrible tragedy that happened last autumn.

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The Disaster

You may remember that we called the police last summer as an established swift colony in Crookes was in immediate danger.

As the disturbed swifts screamed over our heads, scaffolding was steadily and surely being erected.

Work to replace soffits and cap tiles was due to begin.

The actively nesting swifts were being blocked from their chicks and from accessing their long-established nest sites in the cracks under the tiles of the extensive roof.

In large numbers, they circled above.

Even these expertly agile fliers could not negotiate the hard, wide scaffold boards.

In vain, they circled around and around for hours that first evening and the next day.

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The Solution... or so we thought

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is an offence to intentionally disturb any wild bird while it is nest building.

As a result of the police’s  involvement and our quick actions that day, we saved the colony - and the scaffolding was dropped.

The birds re-entered their nests and bred, we hope, successfully that summer.

But, when not in active use, neither swifts (unlike bats) nor their nests have any kind of protection...

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Destruction

In November 2022, we were absolutely, heart-wrenchingly gutted to hear rumours that the work had been carried out anyway, outside of nesting season.

There are no protections for empty swift nests, after all.

The nests had been destroyed, the edges of tiles were capped in shiny black plastic and the beautiful old wooden bargeboards with their wonky edges has been replaced and sealed with shiny, new, uniform, sanitised uPVC.

In short, an ecological disaster for such a large Common Swift colony: for dozens of long-lived, endangered birds currently overwintering in Central Africa.

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The Issue

THIS - we realised is surely what is happening here and all over our country.

THIS is part of the reason swift populations have crashed in recent decades.

THIS need for modernising, insulating and sanitising the structure of our homes is pushing wildlife to the brink of disaster.

Can we not find a way to share our homes?

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The Plan

Today, we enacted a plan that had been months in the planning.

We worked with the landlord and the letting agents, with our trusted Jan of Nest box installations, with our dear friend Lester of Peak Boxes and with a supplier of a cherry picker.

We have begun fitting new, purpose-built swift boxes to the building.

We are not jubilant. We are still heartbroken. We still know that swifts are faithful to their nest sites to within centimetres.

We know there will be casualties this May when they try, and fail, to enter their old nests.

BUT WE HAVE TRIED. We have done our best, and educated a few people along the way.

There will still be potential nest sites for swifts on this building.

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THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved with this project: Aimee, Flora, Chet, Jan and all the others who offered advice.

And thanks to you for reading. “