National Nest Box Week

Bolton & Bury Swifts | Tuesday 01 February 2022 | 0 Comments

Love is in the air!

Valentine’s Day marks the start of National Nest Box week. It’s the time when birds are pairing up and seriously searching for the perfect nest space, desperate to raise the next generation. Bolton and Bury Swifts are encouraging everyone to do what they can to help. Tidy parks and gardens with fewer old trees mean less cavities and with less hedges too, competition for nest space is fierce. Building dependent species such as Swifts and House Martins are having an even harder time. UPVC fascia boards across the eaves block the Swift’s nest entrance and make it hard for Martins to build their mud nests. These birds are known as a true sign of summer and faithfully return to same colonies each year, brightening our summer skies with their fascinating displays.

You can’t have too many nest boxes, but space them out. Most don’t need to go too high about 2 to 3 metres is fine and ideally facing North or East but this isn’t set in stone. South facing boxes can get too hot if no shade nearby. Consider buying a decent box, some are too flimsy.

To find out which type of box suits different birds, for example Blue Tits like a very small hole, Robins like an open fronted box see www.nestboxweek.com At the end of the season clean your boxes out, you have until the end of January but birds will also roost in the boxes in winter.

Get in touch if you are interested in a more specialist box to help Swifts, or an artificial House Martin bowl, ours are designed by an ecologist to exclude other bird species. Swifts and House Martins have recently joined House Sparrows on the Red List, such is the concern about their decline. We can all do our bit to help you can even make your own boxes and get the little ones involved! Having an extension, why not include a bird brick or two? Email Louise on superswifts@outlook.com, or call 07557796508. Look us up on Social Media too… we are Bolton and Bury Swifts