Students at Thomas Keble School in Eastcombe have been learning about swifts and are now actively involved in helping to provide nest sites for them at the school.
As well as giving presentations to the Headteacher and other year groups, they were given the opportunity to work alongside construction experts from Kier in installing swift bricks into the new three-storey teaching block.
Early next year seven double swift boxes will also be installed on the hall – it may take a while for swifts to breed in these nests, but they will provide safe future homes for a sizeable colony of swifts.
For hundreds of years swifts have lived alongside us, nesting under the eaves or the roofs of houses. But as we improve our homes with renovations and better insulation, and with new builds having no gaps for swifts to enter, they are rapidly losing these nest sites. Swift bricks offer an excellent solution: they are cheap, easy to install and will last the lifetime of a building.
There is currently a nationwide campaign to make swift bricks mandatory in all new builds. Dr Simon Opher MP is supporting this with a proposed swift brick amendment to the upcoming planning bill.
Swift facts
• Swifts are site-faithful – they return to the same nest site every year.
• Swifts only spend around three months in this country, arriving in early May to breed and leaving in August.
• They make a 6,000-mile journey from Africa. An adult swift can fly up to 1.5 million miles during its lifetime.
• From the moment a young swift leaves the nest, it will never touch the ground. Apart from the brief nesting period, swifts eat, sleep and even mate on the wing.
• They are the fastest bird on earth in level flight and can reach speeds of 70mph.
• Swifts are in trouble. It is estimated that the UK swift population has declined by nearly 60 per cent in the last 25 years.
Thanks to: Headteacher Steve Shaw who led the project; Annie Parfitt and Wendy Chandler who teach Year 11 Employability Skills; Bisley Climate Action Network (BisCAN); Gill Stacey from Stroud Swift Group whose presentation to the students kickstarted the project; Gloucestershire Naturalists’ Society whose generous grant made this all possible.
Pictures by Gill Stacey
