Page 7 - br-dec-2020

December 2020 December 2020

BRIANTSPUDDLE SWIFTS 2020 archivist Emily Naish, includes two information boards and a four-minute animated
film by Bournemouth University students.
It never ceases to amaze me that our British swifts turn up year after year and find Also on show is an ‘Indulgence’ issued by Archbishop Stephen Langton around
their way back to the precise area where they were born, at pretty much the the time building began on the present site.
same date each year, having flown some 11,000 km to get here. Their migration
takes around a month with the journey from the equator to the UK taking only 10 It grants forgiveness for 30 days of sin to anyone who contributes towards the cost
days! Bad weather is their worst enemy and many can die of exhaustion and of construction.
starvation. They do stop over for several days to feed up around 3 or 4 times The exhibition runs until spring 2021.
during the whole journey.
This year the arrival of the village hall
colony was quite spread out with
the first bird spotted over the village
on the 24 April and others arriving
th
up until 10 May. There are five
th
boxes at the village hall and our
autumn inspection confirmed that
three of these were occupied by
swifts and the remaining two boxes
had been commandeered by the
sparrow community.
Due to bad weather after their
arrival the swifts had to fly a long
way to get out of the bad weather
system to be able to feed up and
recover from their journey. However the weather improved and their numbers
increased with the arrival of the non-breeding birds that have come to look for a
suitable nest site and to find a mate. By the end of June there were 16 swifts flying
overhead and the chicks would still be in the nest boxes then. It is difficult to know
how many chicks there are in each box unless they are all peeking out at the
same time. By mid-July up to 20 swifts were seen flying around the village, and
thereafter numbers started dwindling but there were still adults returning to feed
th
the, by then nearly full grown, youngsters up until the 8 August.
We are hopeful that in 2021 we may get swifts in all five boxes as the young adults
that were house hunting investigated both sparrow-occupied boxes despite the
boxes being stuffed full with sparrow bedding. All boxes are now cleaned out and
the entrances blocked awaiting the return of our swifts in April/May next year.
A year in the life of a Briantspuddle Swift.
Swifts arrive here in late April/early May, parent birds do not arrive together. They
are site faithful so will return to the same nest year after year.

They will first of all feed up to recover condition lost on migration, typically feeding
on insects over a lake or other body of water.

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