Latest news with #swifts
BBC News
03-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival highlights decline of swifts
A display highlighting the dramatic decline of swifts - the "symbol of summer skies" - will feature at this year's Hampton Court Palace Garden Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) which puts on the annual festival, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have created a show garden focused on the birds, which usually arrive in the UK from early May, spend almost all their lives in flight – eating, drinking, mating and sleeping on the depend on healthy insect populations and suitable nesting sites for their breeding season in the UK, conservationists say. How to identify a swift:Dark, sooty brown but can look black against the skyPale patch on the throat, but this is often difficult to see in flightLong, pointed wings held in a boomerang shapeShort, forked tail which can be folded to a pointBullet-shaped headA call that sounds like a high-pitched scream. The species has seen numbers plummet by 68% between 1995 and 2023, data indicates, and they are "red-listed" over concerns about their insect-friendly planting would support the birds and other wildlife, and nesting sites, such as "swift bricks" can be introduced into buildings to give them somewhere to in the swift garden include field maples, common limes, teasel, catmint and devil's bit scabious, which all support and attract insects.
The Independent
30-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Swift garden at Hampton Court show highlights at-risk ‘symbol of summer skies'
A display highlighting dramatic declines of swifts and how households can help the 'symbol of summer skies' will feature at this year's Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) which puts on the annual festival has teamed up with wildlife charity the RSPB for the first time to create a show garden focused on swifts, supported by comedian Bill Bailey. Migrating 3,400 miles to Africa and back each year, the birds spend almost all their lives in flight – eating, drinking, mating and even sleeping on the wing – and depend on healthy insect populations and suitable nesting sites for their breeding season in the UK, conservationists say. But the species has seen numbers plummet by 68% between 1995 and 2023, and they are 'red-listed' over concerns about their survival. The swift garden aims to raise awareness of the species' declines, as well as celebrating their extraordinary migrations, and representing habitats frequented by swifts in the UK including meadows, woodlands and gardens. It will promote diverse, insect-friendly planting to show gardeners how they can support the birds and other wildlife, and feature sculptural representations of nesting sites, such as 'swift bricks' which can be introduced into homes and other buildings to give them somewhere to breed. Plants in the garden include field maples, common limes, teasel, catmint and devil's bit scabious, which all support and attract insects. Lilly Gomm, landscape architect and garden designer who is designing the show garden, said: 'These magnificent birds are a true symbol of summer skies and they need our help. 'By showcasing habitats rich in biodiversity and the small changes we can all make, like planting insect-friendly flowers or installing swift boxes, I hope visitors will feel inspired to take action for wildlife in their own gardens.' Bailey, an RHS ambassador, said swifts were 'majestic birds'. 'I'm delighted to be joining forces with the RSPB and the RHS to bring attention to these incredible aerial acrobats, whose presence is such a joyful part of summer,' he said. 'Their dramatic decline is deeply worrying but there's still a lot we can do to help. 'This garden is not only a celebration of swifts but also a timely reminder that by making our homes and gardens more wildlife-friendly, we can all play a part in securing their future.' RSPB executive director Emma Marsh said the garden was 'a great opportunity for us to demonstrate to visitors not only how incredible swifts are, but to highlight the very real peril they currently face, due to habitat loss and therefore their homes, and declining insect populations which means they have less food available'. 'We've lost more than 60% of the UK's swifts in the last 30 years,' she said. 'They need our help urgently and this amazing garden will show people how they can take action themselves.' She added that all gardeners working together to support wildlife would make a huge difference for swifts and other birds.
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Country diary: My fear is that one year the swifts will not return
My beloved swallows, talisman of my summer happiness, are busy nesting in the stables. Their blue-black shine glistens as they acrobatically insect-catch, collect mud and chatter from the beams. This year, I'm just as obsessed with the return of another migrant species – swifts. It is the fault of the author and campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor. We've spoken recently about her new book, Nature Needs You: The Fight to Save Our Swifts, detailing her battle to have a single swift brick made mandatory in every new-build home. Swifts are totally reliant on our buildings for their (diminishing) nest spaces. My eyes turn skywards several times a day, watching and waiting. The contrails of planes crisscross the skies, but no dark crescents yet cut through the air. I feel a sense of unease, fearing a year will come when the waiting will never stop. But in the next few days, I hear reports of swifts just a few miles away. At the farm, the insect-packed wildflower meadows of purple phacelias, pink sainfoins and oxeye daisies will be their feeding grounds. Hundreds of swifts from surrounding villages and the city will gather, screaming in what sounds like excitement, especially when the tiny black pollen beetles swarm. There is surely not another creature so dedicated to the aerial lifestyle – sleeping, mating and feeding on the wing. Even their scientific name, Apus apus translates as footless. And then I see one. A sole scythe, black against the sky, slicing through the air. In the coming days, my count reaches a dozen – not many, but a start. Now, after weeks of dry, it is rain we are waiting for. Ponds are empty and dust swirls. We've had to cut the meadows for hay early because although it is sparse, the grass was going to seed. This at least gives a chance of a second crop – if it rains. A parched hedgehog visits my little garden pond that I've been topping up, and drinks for 10 minutes. I think of Hannah and how she won't stop fighting for swifts. It's devastating that something so simple and so cheap as 'a brick with a hole' is not happening. Really, what hope does the natural world have? Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
Times
06-05-2025
- General
- Times
Effects of court ruling will trickle down at loos
P ause, gentlemen readers, before you cheer that Supreme Court ruling on biological sex. It emerged last week that this will mean a switch from 'ladies' and 'gents' loos to unisex conveniences. Theatres, restaurants, bars and public lavatories can thus duck controversy and legal challenge. But wait! Surely this spells the end for that miracle of plumbing, the urinal. Unzip, 30 seconds, zip up, wash hands and you're on your way. Hurrying on to the bar, we boys can cast a sympathetic glance at those endless loo queues of women during the interval at Covent Garden. God forbid that we may soon be forced to join them. Reports emerge that housebuilders may be required by planning regulations to equip new homes with roof solar panels: an overdue and obvious move but, of course, a significant cost. So let me tell you about swift bricks. Swifts — those amazing, sky-darting little wonders of aero-engineering that arrive from the south every spring — are in serious long-term decline across Britain, and one reason is that modern housing is depriving them of the nooks and crannies in masonry where they site their tiny nests.
