The Swifts are Back!

In praise of my favourite bird

I’ll open this post with a poem I wrote several years ago now and share every year around the time when the Swifts return to the skies above Edinburgh.

Do you see the swifts are here again?
They swoop so low and soar so high
I think there may be more than ten -
do you see the swifts are here again?
We know it’s summer round here when
our favourite bird comes gliding by
You see the swifts are here! Again
they sweep so low and soar so high!

**

I also, again several years ago, created this haiga (illustrated haiku) celebrating the Swifts

above
the old theatre -
swifts tumble

**

We’re lucky enough to live in an area of Edinburgh where there are several active swift nests sites. Sadly, numbers of these amazing birds have been severely declining across the UK over the past several years (a decline of 65% since 1995), due largely to a lack of nest sites and reducing populations of insects (their main food source). (See this 2020 article on the Bird Guides website for some thoughts on the factors behind the decline of the swift).

I wanted to send this post out a couple of weeks ago, as I saw the first Swift of the year on Tuesday 12 May at 10am, flying over the roofs opposite our flat. However, the last two posts have been time sensitive regarding external information so they got priority!

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve regularly seen a group of six swifts above our street, though they’re no longer present in the same numbers they were when we first moved to this flat 26 years ago (that’s over quarter of a century ago!).

We put up two nest boxes on our front wall a few years ago (we persuaded the roofing contractor to fit them when our last roofing work was carried out). I haven’t seen the swifts going into the nest boxes, though they have flown close over the past couple of years. Hopefully this year may be the year that they decide to use the nest-boxes....

You can find out more about how and where to fit nestboxes for Swifts in this article from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). In January, Scotland introduced a legal requirement that should see nesting bricks for Swifts included in new buildings (read more on the RSPB website here). Campaigns are still underway to make this a legal requirement in the other parts of the UK.

I enjoyed this video from the RSPB about how we can help swifts. I’ve played it at quite a high volume with the windows open, hoping that the calls of the swifts on the soundtrack would attract the local swifts to our nest boxes. Another great video from the RSPB is this one, which shows the route of one swift as it flies from its breeding grounds in the UK across Europe and around Africa and back here for the next breeding season, a journey during which it will not land at all! I particularly like this video as it looks as though this swift passed directly over the village where I lived in Malawi for two years!

There’s also a short article on how you can help Swifts here on the Guardian website.

Swift Awareness Week (27 June - 5 July)

Swift Awareness Week events are run by independent local groups that make up the Swifts Local Network, and RSPB local groups. Find out more on the RSPB website here.

Other Wildlife Observations

At the weekend we walked along the River Esk at Musselburgh and onto the John Muir Walkway alongside the Firth of Forth to the bird hides at the Lagoons. This area is a great place for waders in the winter months, but it’s always a lovely walk. Highlights from Saturday included Eider ducklings, we counted a total of 17 ducklings, here are a few of them (the River Esk is quite polluted as you can tell in this photo):

Eider Ducklings

We also saw several damselflies, including this mating pair (and second competing male) of Common Blue Damselflies

Common Blue Damselflies

Finding Solutions to the Conflict between Farming and Wildlife

This is an excellent article from Lauriston Farm, Edinburgh’s Agro-ecology Project. You can read it here. I posted about Lauriston Farm back in July 2024