The Big Chiswick Swift Count

Help survey the swift population in your local area

Swift above a Chiswick rooftop, image by Jon Perry

Our local swifts have been back for a week now, but…. how many are there? Which areas in Chiswick do they call home? How many do we have left in each area?

Unless we can answer these questions, we shan’t know how close we are to losing all of our W4 swifts.

Many people who have lived in Chiswick for a number of years have noticed that much of our area is lacking the exciting summer swift aerobatics that we used to have. Catherine Day, Chiswick resident and RSPB Swift Volunteer, explains, “We know that the overall swift population in London has plummeted by more than 50% in just the last 15 years. And by talking to many local residents, friends and neighbours here in Chiswick, we know that they are absent from very many of our W4 streets, compared with being a common summer sight in the majority of them not that many years ago”.

Catherine, who has set up the Chiswick Swift Project is launching a ‘Big Chiswick Swift Count’ with help from the RSPB and would like to invite lots of Chiswick residents to take part.

What she will be looking for and wants us to count are swifts in very fast flight, zipping over or around buildings close to roof-top level and calling excitedly. Swifts gliding, circling or swooping high in the sky should not to be counted, as these are simply feeding on airborne insect and are not necessarily resident in the locality.

To launch the Big Chiswick Swift Count, Catherine is holding a ‘Chiswick Swift meeting’ in the evening on Monday 22nd May. Anyone who would like to help is invited to get in touch with her and come along to find out more.

The basics of surveying our swifts is easy and anyone can do it. The task does not need much time, or any previous Swift knowledge – just the willingness to go for several evening walks close to home this summer, keeping your eyes and ears open.

Catherine says, “It’s a matter of choosing a small, very localized patch of streets (probably around where you live, or where you enjoy walking), then going out twice each month in May, June and July on a warm summer’s evening to take a stroll there, looking out for groups of fast, low-flying, calling swifts. There may only be two or three in a ‘party’ nowadays rather than the dozen or upwards of previously. If you see any, you simply need to record the time, and where you see them….. or not, as the case may be, during your survey-walk. It is just as important to record absence of swifts as their presence. Evening is the best time to go, though mornings can also be good.”

If you would like to take part in the Big Chiswick Swift Count and go to the informal briefing meeting on Monday evening May 22nd, email Catherine for more information: catherine.day.lacia@btinternet.com

She also said that, with thanks to Chiswick Pets in Devonshire Road and Chiswick Library, there are leaflets about Swifts and the Chiswick Swift Project that can be picked up at these locations.

May 16, 2017