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Crumlin Swift Tower, a history
For a while now, we have been cautious about encouraging people to put up a Swift tower, because they are relatively expensive and there are so few case studies demonstrating success. Our thoughts are...
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Peak Boxes
We thought it worth publicising a relative newcomer on the Swift nest box market. Lester Hartmann has brought the world of CNC machining to making high precision nest boxes. With a career in building...
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Swift brick camera box
We were asked about cameras in Swift bricks installed to mitigate loss of nest sites under eaves in a hip to gable roof conversion.Ten Swift bricks will be installed, 6 S Bricks high up in the new...
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Dark versus light interior experiment
This post is more about trying to persuade people to do similar experiments than publishing a conclusive result.A point of debate has been whether it is a good idea to paint the inside of a Swift box...
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Inspirational Swift boxes in Segovia
Thank you to Javier Saez Frayssinet for sending these pictures of the nicest installation of integral Swift boxes that we have seen. Hopefully this will demonstrate to architects just what is possible...
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The Swift Micro Caller
Graham Fell of Kendal Swifts has discovered some amazing new technology: an MP3 player costing less than £1. Together, and with others, we have been trialling it and so far we believe that it is a...
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Modified Schwegler 1MF
The Swifts Estate nest boxes in Fulbourn Cambs are one of the most successful projects in the UK: 276 nest boxes in 250 dwellings are home to 100 pairs of Swifts, together with House Sparrows, Great...
View ArticleA solution looking for a problem
This is a bit of fun. We were presented with the problem of a building in Swavesey with Swifts nesting on top of the wall in a high gable. The Swifts are sometimes getting into the building,...
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S Bricks in a rendered wall
This is the end result of the project reported here:actionforswifts.blogspot.com/2019/09/swift-brick-camera-box.html S Bricks do not have enough headroom to house a camera, which is why 4 out of the 10...
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Face-plate Swift box
Swift boxes are normally thought of as 'external' or 'internal'. John Crowther of Stroud wanted to retrofit swift bricks into his stone walls.When John removed a stone, he found that there was no...
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Shepcot House Swifts
There is very little research on acceptable parameters for Swift nest boxes, so we have to rely on anecdotes. This is an example of Swifts nesting in a very small space indeed, perhaps giving a lower...
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Eight S Bricks in 6 hours
Century House, Swavesey was reroofed 2 years ago. As a result a number of Swift nests were lost, and the roof was left in a state that Swifts could get into the roof space, resulting in some...
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A neat renovation in France
Some time ago, we sent some half-brick entrance pieces to Carolyn Knowlman (sosmartinets.com) for a project in Amboise. Following this, an opportunity arose during a renovation, where some existing...
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Swavesey Memorial Hall
Swavesey Memorial Hall was built in 1919. It has a number of Swifts and House Sparrows breeding under open eaves. As part of the Over and Swavesey Swift Conservation project, we devised a way of adding...
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Rutland Swift Boxes
Tim Collins lives in a village just 3km from the shores of Rutland Water. In the last 17 years, he has built a thriving colony of 26 pairs of swifts in DIY nest boxes of his own design. Tim's success...
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Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Paul Worden (@paulworden2015) is employed as a site manager at Lancaster Royal Grammar School where there is a wide range of buildings dating from 1852 to 2011. Paul has sent us a simple way to...
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Swifts inside PVC soffits
Open eaves, with breeding Swifts, are frequently turned into closed eaves with PVC soffits. This is an example of such a project in Cambridge in 2020.The pictures below show 5 neat holes in the Soffit...
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Effect of nest box width on wing bending
A swift's wing length is about 170mm, thus any box with a minimum dimension less than 170mm will require the swift to bend its wings in order to turn. This post is a brief analysis of just how much a...
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Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve
Suffolk Wildlife Trust have built a new visitor centre at Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve. 8 S Bricks have been built in to the timber-frame construction, by making entrances in the wooden...
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Swift Bricks - the 'universal' nest brick
The SLN Swifts & Planning Group has produced a paper advocating the provision of Swift bricks as a preferred solution for a range of small cavity-nesting species. It comes from a realisation that...
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