The kindest correction I ever received was when I wrote about swallows screeching in a summer sky. If they were screeching, a reader gently pointed out, they weren’t swallows. They were swifts. Ouch. Making up for my ignorance, I took more interest in these beautiful birds who slice in twos and fours across warm blue skies, joyous cut-glass cries encouraging us to turn our faces up, and sky bathe. I learned at a Birdwatch Ireland talk at Dublin’s Natural History Museum that “Apus Apus”, the Latin name for the common swift, means “without feet”. It was assumed these forked creatures of the wind (Gabhlán Ghaoithe in Irish) had no need of feet. They seemed never to be in any state other than flight.
Swifts arrive here in May, breed and then migrate around August, eating and sleeping on the wing. In a horribly short time they have gone from being amber to red listed, as a species in decline. They have lost habitat in quiet, empty tall buildings of towns and villages as we re-roof and plug cavities. Their food has declined as we spray and industrially farm our way to insect oblivion.
Lynda Huxley knows swifts. A volunteer with Swift Conservation Ireland, she knows that they are creatures of habit, returning each year to the same nest sites. Permanence matters and she has been working with the Heritage Council to teach people how to make room for them, putting permanent swift homes into old, new or retrofitted buildings. There are special swift blocks that can be built into a wall along with regular blocks, rendered so they become part of the fabric of a new building with nothing but small holes where the birds can fly in (at 50km an hour).
Retrofit or wildness
Huxley has been working with schools in Mayo. The gorgeous new library in Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, has swift blocks built into its fabric and Swift Conservation Ireland has a comprehensive guide aimed at builders (see swiftconservation.ie). If local authorities, housing bodies and the construction industry made these a standard, we could retrofit for wildness.
Birdwatch Ireland also sells swift boxes (birdwatchireland.ie) you can put on existing buildings. They should be at least 4m (13ft) off the ground, ideally on a north-facing wall with a clear flight path, no dazzling lights nearby or obstacles below. Playing a recording of swift calls helps attract new occupants. You need to apply to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for a licence for this. Swifts need company so more than one nest is recommended. They also need food. A ban on pesticides and practices causing catastrophic insect decline could also help keep these much-needed magical creatures in our summer skies.
Catherine Cleary is co-founder of Pocket Forests
