Swift boxes in a church tower?

Biomotors · #1 (**permalink**) 28-06-2009, 03:38 PM

I have permission from my local church to put some swift boxes with visit counters behind the louvres in the belfry. There is one bell which chimes the hours, and is also rung for a couple of minutes once a week before Sunday morning services. There is only the one bell, so no peels.

Does anyone have experience of this, and whether it is safe to put boxes in an environment with this level of noise?

Also, I read somewhere that you could attract them to new boxes by playing the noise of their calls. Is that true?

Thanks
Dominic

Tursiops2 · #2 (**permalink**) 28-06-2009, 04:34 PM

Great idea Dominic

. You should find the info you need on the Swift Conservation website: Contents
T2

Ferret · #3 (**permalink**) 28-06-2009, 07:56 PM

Hi Dominic
I think you will find this website of use The Ely Diocese Swifts Project
Dick Newell chairman of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club is also very knowledgeable on this subject and can be contacted threw the above website (bottom left corner) good luck with a very worthwhile project.

Ferret

Biomotors · #4 (**permalink**) 28-06-2009, 08:48 PM

Thanks. Brilliant advice from you both. I hope to log the visit dates and track changes from year to year. I'll keep WAB posted on the results!

Picidae · #5 (**permalink**) 29-06-2009, 05:04 AM

Well done biometers - swifts need all the help they can get with nesting spaces. I'm lucky, I have swifts nesting in a roof cavity on my house this year for first time ever!!

Church steeples and bell towers make excellent nesting sites for birds as they are generally inaccessibly, have a compassionate landlord and unlikely to be accidentally disturbed.

I think you'll find the consensus will be that birds will not be disturbed from bell ringing - thought you'd like this image I took in Greece earlier in the year: These White Storks also get subjected to the Orthodox Mass being boomed out from the loudspeaker attached to the bell tower, several times a day!!

bell_tower_meglahori - Wild About Britain Pics

DuncanE · #6 (**permalink**) 29-06-2009, 05:06 AM

Hopefully you'll get a church full of swifts... I'm currently holidaying in Krakow and there are hundreds of swifts nesting in the Walls of the big church in the main square... A magnificent sight, and a joy to watch over a cheap local brew! Just wish it was like that in the UK - the swifts that is, the cheap beer would be a bonus too!