I’m sure many of you will be keeping your fingers crossed that our African migrants will choose your new box for their new nests this year. These things take time (even years) but the important thing is these guys will have more options. One way to gain their interest is to mimic the calls of a residing swift from (around) your box.

I have personally tried and tested these swift calls and they worked in getting the swifts’ attention and finally investigation. I now have residing swifts.

You can download these calls (see link below). I found that the single calls worked a treat, more so than the colony ones. The calls are all downloadable.

To get these calls near your box, you can either:

– play them on your mobile (risky if your phone starts ringing), or,

– buy a specialist sound system such as that offered by Peak Boxes: https://peakboxes.co.uk/shop-sound-systems or

– invest in a bluetooth speaker (see link below of a tried and tested example) with an sd card which you would put the calls onto.

I used this bluetooth speaker and hung it on a length of string and trapped it in a window near the box (putting a large knot in it to prevent the string sliding through).

The calls need to be a similar volume of the bird calling, so imagine they are calling out to passing swifts, they need to be loud enough to be heard. From street level, people tend not to notice, they may hear the calls but they are no louder than the birdsong that’s going on naturally.

Only play calls in good weather so don’t bother when it’s raining or cold. Playing them in the morning is a good move, and then maybe late afternoon/early evening. Basically for as long as you can get away with it, without annoying the neighbours. Also, just looking out for the swifts and switching on your calls when you see them about is a good move.

Playing the calls from early May until the end of July is best. This year’s breeders will be looking in May, next year’s breeders look from the end of June until the end of July. There’s plenty more information online but I hope you get the gist!

CALLS (well known and used dutch swift calls):

https://www.vwgdekulert.nl/wat…/zwaluwen-werkgroep/…

BLUETOOTH SPEAKER:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/…/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i…

SD CARD YOU CAN USE WITH THE ABOVE BLUETOOTH SPEAKER:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/…/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i…

Another 2 fitting days in February saw our total nest spaces top 150 as we start to ramp up before these beautiful birds embark on that epic journey back to our shores. Little do they know what’s been happening whilst they’ve been away! We’ve definitely started 2022 as we ended 2021 with a constant stream of enquiries and orders. It’s kept us very busy indeed but it’s really heartwarming to see the desire to help these swifts is not relenting, but growing. We say it alot but we really want to say it again: thank you to every one of our customers who have bought a box and had it fitted (by our awesome Jan of Nest box installations). For anyone who is still thinking about getting a box but not sure about whether they have a suitable location, please fill out our form and get in touch, all our advice is free and we’d love to hear from you.

It has been a rollercoaster year for S6 Swifts. We were founded, we reached out to the public with an idea, and the public thought it was great. So we ordered boxes, fitted them, gave advice and went from strength to strength. It’s been an incredible journey so far and the timing has never been more critical. Swifts are on the red list which has made this initiative even more important. Our latest fitting day resulted in a running total of 117 new nest spaces ready and waiting for the swifts when they return. 17 more than Emma’s initial aim of 100.

And we lost Emma. Emma was the driving force behind the establishment of S6 Swifts. She didn’t mess about. She ensured we got stuck in to get the initiative off the ground. No time was wasted and we have achieved so much already because of Emma. We will always be thankful for that and will ensure her legacy lives on. Already we have a number of orders for 2022 and our next fitting days are scheduled for February. Thank you to everyone who’s already acquired a box and thank you to those who have ordered one recently. And thank you Emma. Happy new year to all and here’s to an exciting 2022.