Swift Awareness Week is a national event which was first held in 2018 with swift activities promoted by groups throughout the country. This year it takes place from Saturday 29th June to Sunday 7th July.
In the Malmesbury area we are behind a lot of other small towns in that we have only recently founded a Swift Group to study and safeguard these birds. Our focus during Swift Awareness Week therefore is to try to get a good initial estimate of the numbers of nesting birds and thus provide a baseline to monitor how well they are doing in future years.
Our swifts should have young in the nest at this period, which means they will be bringing food to the nest location every hour or so, at least on mild days when there are plenty of insects available. Hence our focus during the week will be to try to confirm as many nests as possible by observing the behaviour of the swifts around the streets.
Our surveys so far have shown that there is an extensive colony of swifts in the area of Horse Fair and adjacent streets, particularly Burnham Road and West Street. There is a smaller colony which extends along King’s Wall and Burnivale.
Please keep your eyes open for any swifts, either in these areas or elsewhere, and if you find any apparently using nests we would greatly appreciate a report.
