A flying start: 51 new nest boxes for Christmas Common swifts
The Christmas Common farm cluster recently received Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) grant funding to install 51 nest boxes across the cluster to support the recovery of swift numbers.
Swifts nest in gaps and holes in buildings, making them vulnerable to renovations that block these access points, such as replacing wooden fascias and soffits with plastic or installing cavity wall insulation.
Installing swift boxes in suitable locations provides alternative nesting sites. Alison Cross of Wessex Farm Wildlife, who facilitates the farm cluster, managed the project with input from Hampshire Swifts and local swift specialist Ailsa Claybourne to ensure the boxes were correctly positioned.
Swift boxes should ideally be at least 5 metres high, with a clear flight path below, and placed on the more shaded side of a building. Boxes on modern barns are rarely used. As swifts prefer to nest close together, at least two boxes were installed at each location, with some double boxes also included.
The new nest boxes will be ready for swifts arriving next year, although it can take time for birds to use them. Young swifts often return to investigate potential nest sites before breeding at three or four years old. To encourage them, the grant also funded ‘swift callers’, which play swift calls to attract birds to the area. We look forward to seeing the results of this project in the years ahead!
The Farming in Protected Landscapes programme is now in its sixth year, with funding confirmed until March 2029.
Find out more about FiPL funding
Header image: Alexis Lours (Wikimedia Commons)
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