Highcliffe in Winchester has been an area of special interest to Hampshire Swifts ever since 2018. That year, during a survey of swift nests in the city, we received reports that natural nest sites were being lost during the re-roofing of properties owned by Winchester City Council (read more here).
That led to an agreement with the Council that tenants would be offered a free swift box when their house was re-roofed. As a result of that agreement, and growing interest in Swifts among the residents, the number of swift nest boxes on homes in Highcliffe has risen each year. You can read our 2021, 2022, and 2023 blogs about the Swifts in Highcliffe by clicking the links.
Before the Swifts returned from migration this year, six bespoke swift boxes were installed in one of the gables of All Saints’ Primary School, close to a natural swift nest. This brought the number of swift nest boxes in Highcliffe to 123.
Survey results for this summer show another increase in the number of breeding Swift pairs occupying the boxes. In total, there were 43 Swift pairs nesting in boxes this year, compared with 33 in 2023 and 14 pairs in 2020. As the figure below shows, the number of pairs using the boxes has gone up each year since we started surveying in 2020.
It is noteworthy that very few Swifts (or House Sparrows or Starlings) now use natural nest sites in Highcliffe because uPVC soffit replacements and re-roofing have removed so many of the gaps and holes that they used to use. This summer we found only five natural nest sites occupied by Swifts and one natural site occupied by Starlings.
The two roads with the largest number of swift boxes are Portal Road and Gordon Avenue. The number of pairs of Swifts occupying boxes in these roads increased again this year (see table) and it was great that in Milland Road two of the double boxes installed there in October 2022 were occupied for the first time. These boxes were funded when Winchester City Council kindly gave Highcliffe Community Forum for Action the funding for four double swift boxes for two three-storey blocks of flats.
As the number of breeding pairs of Swifts has increased in these roads, so has the amount of interest from younger, non-breeding Swifts. Highcliffe has become a wonderful place to experience the thrill of large Swift screaming parties on fine summer days. One of our surveyors reported that the largest screaming party she witnessed this summer contained 33 Swifts!
We are keen to increase the number of Swift nest boxes in Highcliffe to provide Swifts, and of course House Sparrows, with more places to nest. Several council-owned houses in Portal Road have no swift boxes because they were re-roofed before Winchester City Council introduced their policy of offering a free swift box to tenants whose house was having the roof and soffits replaced. We are liaising with the Council to see if they can provide these households with swift boxes.
If anyone living in Highcliffe would like to help their local Swifts and House Sparrows by buying a swift box that we will install for you, please email us on info@hampshireswifts.co.uk
We are grateful to Rachel Hardy and Rachel Remnant for surveying Highcliffe’s Swifts in 2024.
Catharine Gale, Hampshire Swifts
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