New Year update

As expected the Swift has now been put on to the BoCC red list. The criteria for inclusion varies from species to species but in the case of the Swift it was a 50% fall in numbers over a 25 year period that caused the downgrade.  Alarm bells are ringing.

There has been a lot of fire-fighting with our Swift projects. The Cardiff Bay Swift tower group has met to discuss various issues, not least of which was the faulty call system. We have now fixed the problem, with the help of BlackboxAV from Port Talbot (see below). They replaced the player but had to by-pass the time controller so the player will be on full-time. Luckily there are no neighbours to annoy. Also we have undertaken our bi-annual safety inspection of the tower and fortunately it passed all the checks as part of our bid to the Heritage Lottery.

Chris Dunn from Trinity Church in Penarth has been in touch. You may well recollect that scaffolding had been placed around the church tower. They have been having problems with pigeons in the tower and are planning to add mesh to the outside of the louvred entrances. We are hoping to cut small holes to line up with our Swift box entrances - fingers crossed.

 

The possibility of installing boxes in Fonmon Castle has stalled. The owners have asked us to pause the project for the time being, whilst some problems with the electrics are sorted.

 There is some positive news however. The Caerphilly LNP discussed Swifts at a recent meeting. Richard Clarke has been installing Barn Owl boxes in churches in the county and is hoping to install some Swift boxes too. We have also been in touch with the Newydd Housing Association in Barry to discuss installing some boxes there.

 Of interest a Common Swift was seen hawking for insects over Sheffield on 3rd December.