Helping house martins and swifts in the South Downs

Kim Greaves, Ranger for the Eastern Downs, writes about efforts by the National Park to help house martins and swifts.

House martins and swifts were once common and widespread species in the UK, with the sounds of their distinctive calls and their bustling and arcing flight overhead being the epitome of the British summer.

Traditionally nesting under eaves and within roof spaces in our villages, towns and even city centres, these human-made structures acted as suitable proxies for their natural nesting places amongst the boughs and fissures of ancient trees, which were felled and lost over generations on a monumental scale to build our buildings and ships, and to introduced diseases such as Dutch Elm disease.

Due to a lack of suitable wet mud in the modern landscape as a result of climate change and hard surfacing of trackways, House Martins now struggle to replace lost nests, and are forced to expend a lot of energy to do so.

This has led to House Martins declining by 50% in the last 50 years, and Swifts declining by 60% in the last 30 years, contributing to the ever more silent springs and summers we now endure.

Recently, National Park rangers funded 10 house martin nest cups and four swift boxes to be fitted to the Long Barn at Stanmer, near Brighton.

Historically, this barn dating to the 1700s supported a large colony of house martins, but these nests were removed when the barn was restored a number of years ago. Artificial nest cups have been installed and quickly occupied. The house martin colony had a bumper season last year with nearly all the cups occupied and many pairs having double broods. In late summer a flock of between 50 and 100 birds were seen dust bathing outside Stanmer House. So it seemed a good time to expand the housing opportunities and additional cups have since been added.

The National Park’s eastern ranger team are hoping to develop this into a wider house martin, swift and swallow project. So watch this space! 😊