On Jun 30, 4:28*pm, larkim wrote:
On Jun 30, 3:55*pm, RobertL wrote:





On Jun 30, 12:06*pm, larkim wrote:

We've had some swifts nesting firstly in the eaves and now slightly
further into the loft (I presume they've used some of the membrane as
nesting material and made the hole larger), plus some sparrows I think
at another point.

What time of year is a good time to repair / block these holes so as
not to interfere with nesting? *And how thorough should I be about
cleaning up behind them?

When I was child my parents blocked the eaves against the swifts who
regularly nested there. They blocked them in the winter when the
swifts were all away.

We were horrified when the swifts came back the next spring because
they obviously knew individually exactly where to go, * They flew up
repeatedly into the blocked holes knocking themselves out and falling
onto the ground. Once on the ground a swift cannot take off again.
It was heartbreaking.

In fact it was so heartbreaking that my parents removed all the
blockages during the follwing winter. *But the swifts never came
back. * That was 40 years ago.

Robert

We'll be feasting on swift then next spring - nice!

(Sorry, tasteless joke, couldn't resist).

Interestingly I've trawled around a little for the "fact" about swifts
not being able to take off again. *Apparently its not strictly true -
its just that healthy and uninjured swifts don't take to the ground.
Sick or injured ones do, and they can't take off again (because they
are sick and injured). *A healthy one can reflight, and if you really
wanted to you could pick one up and throw it in the air to reflight if
it was just stunned.

Looks like I might be testing out that theory next year!


Interesting. I can definitiely remember picking swifts up of the lawn
and throwing them up in the air and seeing them then fly off happily.
Perhaps these had 'crash landed' and were a bit dazed, or were young
birds.

Robert