Welcoming the Swifts
Thanks again to Catherine Simmonds for passing on the link below.
‘Derbyshire swift group have made available a recent webinar by Edward Mayer of Swift Conservation,’ writes Catherine. ‘Edward was booked to speak here in Shaftesbury last May, as part of a series of swift welcome events, but we had to postpone because of covid. He’s a wonderful speaker and gives lots of practical information about how we can help swifts in the built environment.’
Here’s a brief bio:
Edward’s working career has been mostly in buildings and facilities management; he was Head of Gallery Management for the Tate Gallery in London from the opening of the Clore Gallery to the creation of Tate Modern. Edward has loved Swifts since childhood. In the late 1990’s he noticed that the Swifts nesting in his local area were in decline. He realised that re-roofing of local properties was blocking Swifts from returning to their long-established nest sites. Surveys show that unless we take action now, and on a significant scale, within 20 years the Swift will become a rare bird within the UK. The solution is to both create new nest places and properly protect existing ones, as well as to provide and maintain habitats more generally that provide them with vital support, principally their flying insect food and water. To create awareness of this, Edward set up “Swift Conservation” a web-based advice service, celebrating Swifts, and showing what can be done to save them. Swift Conservation provides essential advice on urban biodiversity and urban habitat improvement to government, building professionals and the public.
Here’s a link to the talk:
And here’s one to the Swift Conservation organisation: