Sheffield community group installs 90 swift nesting sites to help endangered bird

Totley Swift Group has installed 90 swift nest sites across the village in preparation for the endangered bird’s spring return.
By Sophie Watson
Published 16th Dec 2021, 07:00 BST
Updated 17th Dec 2021, 08:52 BST
Members of the Totley Swift Group.Members of the Totley Swift Group.
Members of the Totley Swift Group.

The project, funded by Birds on the Brink, a local councillors’ ward pot scheme and Totley residents, will help provide a nesting space for the swifts during breeding season.

Andrew Cleave MBE, Birds on the Brink trustee, said: “We supported this project because we liked the community involvement and education links.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Swifts have had a difficult time in recent years with the modernisation of old buildings and the lack of suitable nesting sites in new ones, so this project will help redress the balance.”

The Swift nest box installed at Totley All Saints Primary School.The Swift nest box installed at Totley All Saints Primary School.
The Swift nest box installed at Totley All Saints Primary School.

As part of the funded project, a nest box was installed at both Totley All Saints, and Totley primary schools. Cameras will follow soon, allowing the children to watch the baby birds grow.

Trudi Brown, headteacher at Totley All Saints, said: “We were keen to be involved with the swift programme as it will further enhance the children’s learning experience in woodland workshops.

“The wildlife, including the birds, gives us opportunities to teach the children about caring for the environment and the natural world and we can make links to the science curriculum across the school, within the study of habitats, food chains, life cycles, classification and evolution.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In the last 23 years, swifts have declined by over 50 per cent in the UK.

After discovering a colony of nesting swifts in Totley, village residents and members of Friends of Gillfield Woods came together to create Totley Swifts.

Chet Cunago, a group member, said: “The creation of Swift groups has spiralled and there are now groups in Walkley, Heeley, Meersbrook and Ecclesall. Sheffield is certainly proving to be a city which loves swifts.

“Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust has also got on board. “The organisation is going to map all of the swift nest boxes and contribute the data to a national database letting us know where all the nest boxes are and where the swifts are pairing.”

The nest boxes are handcrafted by joiner Lester Hartmann, who runs Peak Boxes. Based in the Hope Valley, Peak Boxes have helped the swift group with free advice and box installation.

Related topics:Swifts