Check your swift bricks, boxes (& roofs) by using this simple Call and Response Method.

We are trialling a new survey technique to assess how your swift boxes and bricks are doing city wide – it will help hugely with our future plans for providing suitable nest provision across the city and help us discover and consequently save, natural nests from destruction.

The technique was devised by our friend Graham Knight of Sawbridgeworth swifts. Graham discovered over 170 nests last season using this method. The only catch is – you need to perform it rather early whilst the swifts are still in bed!

The survey should be performed as follows:

• Between 8^th May and 20^th August
• At dawn (around 6am before they leave their nests to feed) as we need to know if they were in their nests overnight
• At dusk when they’re settling back in their nests for the night
• Just once a week as we don’t want to distress any nesting swifts
• Once you hear a swift in your box do not repeat and disturb them any more. Just let us know you have swifts here!

You will need

• A speaker or a mobile phone to play the call
• To download the following MP3 call:

Method

• Stand under your box / brick / roof and play the single swift call (attached) for about 5 seconds from a phone or a small speaker. If playing from a phone, point the speaker (bottom of the phone) away from you and towards the box/or nest brick 
• Listen for a response 
• Any nesting swift in earshot should respond to this call, in a territorial reply.
• If there is no response, repeat once after 30 seconds then try again the following week

Could you survey your street?

This Call and Response Technique can also help us find swifts’ nests across the city. Could you survey your road too (or a section of it) for just 30 mins once a week?  It will mean an early start!

We simply can’t cover the whole of Sheffield and Rotherham ourselves sadly. But if we don’t know where the nests are, we can’t protect them from destruction.

Find out by playing the call at around 6am every 50 metres and listening out for a response, noting down the address and sending your records to us here. Concentrate efforts on any houses with open eaves.

As we know, swift boxes can take a while to work. One thing that will certainly help is fitting a swift caller. They’re like a silver bullet in attracting swifts to nesting places. Have a look at our  ‘Swift Callers’ page. Jan @Nestworks can fit one for you if you prefer not to hike up ladders yourself.

Fit a swift caller before swifts arrive in May – they REALLY work:

And finally – Don’t despair if you do not have any luck this season. There’s good swift box news coming out of S17 Totley Swifts.
Two chicks hatched and fledged from one of the boxes in 2023 and swifts ‘occupied’ or took great interest in 5 others last season. That’s potentially 6 pairs of S17 swifts occupying boxes in 2024. Swifts can take a while to get used to the lovely boxes you have provided for them, but as the saying goes… if you build it, they will come.