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We have shared links to the uploaded videos and photos from two swift boxes in Tisbury where there are cameras installed. Please access from the Resources page or directly via https://www.tisburynaturalhistory.com/birds.html
Do have a look, there is some marvellous footage! Not a call for help but to watch out - there may be swifts about! Last Mayday was the first reported sighting of a swift in Tisbury.
And yes, we are excited. Our Chairman, Peter Shallcross, got funding for 20 new boxes through the Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme and these are already in place - that's five new swift hosts and more boxes on some existing swift homes. Highlights last summer include: 'Just seen the swift busy feeding its young in swift box' - Abby Eaton's photo clearly shows a parent bird's pouch full of insects harvested on the wing for its young 'What a show they put on tonight - they scream past so close to the house and also go right up to the nest' 'I was hanging out of my window watching the screaming parties and one made straight for me and went up into the eaves 3ft away with a thud! I can hear them messing about when I'm lying in bed (such joy).' 'I counted 49 in a party ...' 'Young swift peeping out of box' Just some of the reports sent in - Abby's amazing photos capture the thrill of those evening 'screaming parties'. But we need more reporters! To share the excitement, please do start now reporting activity to me - birds flying into nest holes - often invisible, looks like they're going straight into the wall - or boxes, screaming parties (how many, where?). From June through early July, it's actual breeding we need to record. Just sit somewhere unobtrusive (in a car is perfect for your comfort!) between 9.15 and 9.45 in the evening. Fix your gaze on your chosen nest site or box and note the time and detail of comings and goings. Of course you can do that for your own house, but if you'd like to help with somewhere else, please do just get in touch. Have a screamingly good summer! Elizabeth Forbes (As appeared in May's Focus Magazine) We have come to that time of year where we watch the skies for wheeling swifts and over the last couple of weeks have been thrilled to witness their arrival. Here we have footage of a swift arriving earlier this week and the following day being joined by a mate. We'll update our camera findings as the season progresses. The Swift Box Project in the village was started some years ago and part funded by the Tisbury & District Natural History Society. This year the Society match-funded a DEFRA grant as part of the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme, to buy further boxes and a camera.
On Thursday afternoon Andrew Carter's patience paid off as he waited with camera poised to catch the moment of the swift diving into its box, then having a peek out before taking off again. Thank you for sharing these remarkable pictures! A delightful story is in the Guardian (20th January) about John Stimpson in Cambridgeshire who made it his mission to help swifts find appropriate nesting sites. Having just turned 80, Mr Stimpson is proud to have reached his goal of building 30,000 swift boxes and is intent on continuing for as long as he can. Thank you to Anne Perkins for bringing the story to our attention. You can read the full article by clicking on the Guardian link above.
An update from Elizabeth Forbes  Photo: Abby Eaton My warmest thanks to everyone who supported our campaign - volunteering to host a nest box (even if your house turned out not to be suitable), as surveyors or just by being encouraging and feeding in information. Swifts are now officially 'endangered', but we can all take some satisfaction from having 'done our bit' to help our own population to thrive. So, with the arrival of the swifts from April on ward to look forward to, now is the time to report on where we'll be starting from.
Inspired by the talk via Zoom last January by Ed Mayer of Swift Conservation, people responded from across the community: from Teffont Evias to Semley, Hampshire Swifts installed a total of 32 nest boxes, with six also playing recordings of swift calls to attract interest. We are so grateful to Hampshire Swifts for their support from the outset right up to the present day when the last boxes are about to be installed. The report by Andrew Graham of the survey we then undertook is found here. This suggests there were at least six active nests and that the overall population is around 35-40 birds, of which around 23 may be looking for new homes this breeding season. As we said, we didn't expect new boxes to have residents straight away - the four boxes I put up on my own house in 2019 have still not got established occupants, but there was certainly interest last year so I hope you'll share my patient optimism! In the future, with the information now available on where in the village there is the most activity, our survey will most usefully focus on feedback from nest box hosts and previously recorded active nests. Finally, I am absolutely delighted to say that Laura Downer, who so very ably kept the whole complex campaign running smoothly, has now offered also to take over the practical side of things and Andrew will continue his wonderful work on the statistics. In a way it's not for me to thank them for their very hard work, but I do, most warmly. So please keep in touch with Laura, from now on, and of course let her know if you'd like to help. Again I wish you all the very best 2022 has to offer and thank you again on behalf of Tisbury Swifts. Nearly all the dozen or so volunteer surveyors were able to come to The Boot on 8 July, for a final briefing and initial survey of each of the ten areas in the village. Informal reports indicate that activity was patchy in the extreme that evening, but what Andrew, Laura and I observed is at least encouraging. It seems that Lady Down View and The Quarry are both often centres of activity although we're not sure how many birds are commuting between them! This video of activity last Thursday in Lady Down View is a welcome demonstration of what you might see, if not this year then in future years, in your own areas. It's best viewed on full screen - click the button bottom right.
Please do upload any videos you are able to take maybe on DropBox, so that I can download them for this website. The weather forecast is that we can expect a St Swithun's day switch to warmer, more settled times and this will encourage the swifts back down to what we regard as more normal summertime activity.  Photo: Abby Eaton First, the Committee's decision to go ahead, then Ed Mayer's brilliant talk in January, recording all the 'expressions of interest', visiting all the potential homes for swifts throughout the village, mapping them and previous known/believed nest sites village-wide, commissioning over 30 nest boxes, installing them and call systems - it's been quite an adventure. Without the encouragement of Ed Mayer at Swift Conservation, and the advice and practical support of Tim Norriss of Hampshire Swifts, we'd definitely not be where we now are. Which is - surveying the existing population to give us a base-line from which to monitor what we hope will be its growth in the years to come. Andrew Graham, our wildlife recording expert, emailed everyone who's expressed interest in the campaign explaining what's involved and asking for help in recording observations. Those who can are getting together on Thursday before going out to each of the 10 areas of the village Andrew has outlined.
By way of celebration and to inspire us, here is the 'library' of videos that have come my way over the last few years. Enjoy!
Because this is a long term project, we'll be repeating the survey every year at around this time. so if you'd like to be involved in future, please email Laura, who's managed to keep us in some kind of order as we made our way through this unknown territory. Well, there's a lot to report!  Nest boxes We were absolutely thrilled that we ended up with 17 homes for humans now also equipped with a total of 32 new homes for swifts - extending from Teffont Evias (we could hardly refuse to include Laura Downer, our Project Manager) to the outback of Semley (we couldn't resist such a lovely property, with farm buildings nearby for possible expansion of the we-hope colony). We were greatly helped in the planning by Andrew Graham's mapping skills. Thank you all! We emphasised to everyone that this is a long-term project - it took a similar one ten years to get from a single breeding pair to 35, so we have to grit our teeth, especially in this most swift-unfriendly spring when all our migrators are having a hard time. We also installed six calling systems, on properties deemed too far from a known nest site to attract residents from there. We cannot thank Hampshire Swifts enough for their whole-hearted, unstinting support - and Ed Mayer of Swift-Conservation for his January talk, which inspired this response. For more about this, go to Tisbury Focus magazine May issue for a wonderful feature with a lovely front cover photo showing the installation team in action. Next stage What we now have to do is undertake a survey of the village to identify currently active nest sites and the overall size of our local population. We'll do this in early July, when there's Swift Awareness Week from 3-11. Meanwhile ... swifts are in the air or sometimes, not: here's what to do if you find one on the ground In the last five years, it's been a privilege to hold four swifts in my hand - two live young which I took to the Wildlife Hospital, one moribund so sadly didn't make it and one dead that I found on Cuffs Lane. So it's quite possible you may find one yourself. I don't know if the moribund one would have survived if I'd known to try re-hydrating it, as described here on the Swift Conservation website and in this excellent leaflet about rescuing swifts. It's drafted for vets but pretty good for ordinary people. The basic is: Swifts can't take off from the ground because their wings are too long and their legs too short to give them the necessary thrust. So if you find one on the ground, to see if it's strong enough to fly, hold it out at head height on open palms, give it time to think and if it can, it will. DO NOT throw it into the air.  If it can't, follow the advice in the leaflet and take it to our local Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital at Newton Tony - SP4 0HW. They take in anything up to 20 swifts a year, some as tiny as this one, and nurture them till they're big and strong enough to join the migration back to Africa.
Call 07850 778752 first for advice, but they're open 24 hours for patients. Andrew took over the late David Rear's responsibility for monitoring butterflies in the Oddford Vale and also monitors elsewhere in Wiltshire, he's been doing weekly counts of birds in his garden for several years and last summer extended this to using a trap provided by Butterfly Conservation to monitor moths in his garden as well - hence the stunning photographs posted on this website.
We are hoping to recruit volunteers to help us monitor the population of swifts in Tisbury, after the new nest boxes are installed in April. We already know of a number of nest sites that have been used until last year and it is vital that we check whether they are again this year. For more about wildlife recording, go to that page. |
Photo: Avocets (Izzy Fry)
The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
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