The Leicestershire & Rutland Swift Partnership needs further Swift sightings this year. Please help...

In particular records of:

   Breeding Birds in 'traditional' sites in buildings;
   Birds using artificial sites for breeding particularly whether in a Swift Brick or a nest box; and
   Successful breeding - if you can tell - it is very difficult!

With lockdown still in place, what better way is there to spend your exercise period, than to assess how well Swifts are doing in your home patch? Please submit your results to Nature Spot (alternatives, if you want them are the Leicestershire & Rutland Ornithological Society on its Recorder system, available from its website, or to the RSPB Swift Mapper App). All these records will end up in the records at the Leicestershire & Rutland Environment Records Centre and will be used to update Swift Alert maps; areas around which Planners will be seeking the incorporation of nest bricks in any new developments.

The Swift Partnership has now received from the County details of over 100 sites where Swift Brick conditions were suggested to the Local Planning Authority in the last 2 years. It would be great if anybody would volunteer to check, in your own patch, whether the condition has been met and has been implemented, and if so, whether the Swift Bricks or boxes are successful. Please let Peter Williams know at landrswifts@gmail.com if you are able to volunteer and for which area and he'll furnish you with the details.