Swifts have a new home at Shanklin United Reformed Church (URC’s) thanks to two cousins.
Robin Harley, Countryside Officer for Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council, contacted his cousin the Revd Brian Harley, Minister of Shanklin URC, when he spotted that the church’s clock tower and bell chamber would be a perfect nesting site for the birds.
According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Swifts are summer visitors, breeding across the UK, but are most numerous in the south and east.
Brian, Robin and Bob Lord, from Hampshire Swifts, a wildlife organisation, joined forces to give the birds a new home at the church, installing a Shanklin nesting box behind the tower’s wooden louvres, above the clock and bell housing.
Breeding season is between May and October and if the project is successful, it may be expanded in 2025.
Bob said: “Our swift population is in trouble and declining.
“Swifts have adapted to living in holes in buildings, but these are being blocked-up as we move from timber to UPVC fittings and these don’t shrink and crack to create small nooks-and-crannies for wildlife. New artificial spaces are needed if we want to save our swifts.”
The RSPB website explains that Swifts migrate 3,400 miles twice a year. They spend winters in Africa, stopping off to refuel in places like Portugal and France along the way.
After a long flight back from their winters in Africa, Swifts have one thing on their minds – to mate. They pair for life, returning to the same site each year for a little nest renovation before laying and incubating their eggs. They’re favourite places to live are places like houses and churches, squeezing through tiny gaps to nest inside roofs.
Brian said: “We’re delighted to be doing our bit to help wildlife thrive. In the town centre we don’t have any land, so it is great that we can offer a high-level safe nesting place for these tidy, clean birds. They are part of God’s beautiful diverse creation. As Psalm 24 says ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it’.”
Images: The Revd Brian Harley.