Searching through the pages of my blog, I’m not sure I’ve really given enough space to my favourite bird – the swift. I aim to change that and I’ll start with a post about yesterday when I had the chance to get up close to some of these birds. Having spoken to one of our fellow villagers, John, a few times since we moved here in 2021, last year he kindly showed me his swift nest boxes and the video feed he has from them. We spoke again recently and this time he invited me around to see the swift chicks be ringed.

John, the two ringers, Neil and Michelle, and I made our way up to one of his bedrooms where he can gain access to two of his nest boxes. The birds from one of the boxes had already fledged but there were two chicks still in the second. Unfortunately, on inspection, the chicks were too close to fledging to ring; it would have risked them flying out of the nest too early. We therefore had to abort the ringing but instead walked up to the church to inspect the nest boxes high up in the base of the steeple.

Three of us went up the three steep sets of ladders to gain access to the steeple and then John and Neil clambered over the bells to check on the two boxes. More chicks were found, revealing a very successful breeding year for John’s nest boxes with five boxes in total producing 10 chicks. 

Over the previous two summers we have lived in the village, we have frequently seen swifts but not often at low roof-top level around our house. However, during this third summer in the village, we have seen quite a lot of swifts flying close around our house and the neighbouring ones, hopefully, indicating not only that there may be more nests in the village but that they may be in the surrounding houses or out-buildings. 

I could talk and write for hours about swifts, and I aim to write some more, but I’ll keep this post short but just say that there is something rather nice about hearing a party of screaming swifts as I sit at my desk in my home office on a warm summer afternoon. It’s a sound I look forward to throughout the autumn, winter and spring.