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A group of four swifts, small dark birds with scythe shaped wings. In flight at dusk with their wings lit underneath by warm yellow sunlight.

Swifts in flight © Volunteer Gary Eisenhauer

A swift recovery

Swift surveys

Here’s how we suggest you carry out your self-guided swift survey:

  • Choose an  area in your local patch – either that you can walk to from your house, or within 5 miles, and aim to start your observations bewteen 8:30 and 9pm, and then keep watching until dusk if possible.
  • You can record as an individual, or a family/household, but please refer to Welsh Govt guidelines re: coronavirus and stay safe. Also please take care on roads and be aware of other pedestrians and traffic, particularly as it gets darker. Wear light clothing/reflectors.
  • You can either walk a given route and stop to record any swift activity you come across, or ‘stake out’ a known/suspected swift site and just record there. Please respect people’s homes though – use your discretion and don’t linger if it feels as if you are intruding on people’s privacy.
  • Make a note of numbers of swifts seen at the locations, and what they were doing – i.e. were they flying high up, circling or flying fast at roof height and calling loudly (a screaming party). Especially useful information is if you can spot a swift actually entering or exiting a building under the eaves of a house or a nest-box. You probably won’t need binoculars, but please photograph or film swift activity if you can.
  • Then please log your sightings on the special Swift Recovery page on Cofnod: https://www.cofnod.org.uk/LinkInfo?ID=10 (you can also get with distinguishing swifts from swallows or martins here if you need it). If you’re not alreay registered with Cofnod it doesn’t take long, and then you’re set up to inut your data. This information builds up a picture of where swifts are breeding in N Wales, and could help protect your local swifts in the face of potential threats.

Tips

  • Listen out for calls early on in the evening – can help to locate swifts overhead.
  • You may hear swifts calling from inside a nest site – you can record this as a nesting attempt.
  • Remember swifts deliberately enter/exit buildings at high speed so they can be hard to spot.
  • Screaming parties often have a ‘circuit’ which may include more than one potential nest site.
  • Try if possible to find vantage points where you can see more than one nest site at a time.