Swift Report 2025

In March, the nest box camera was installed into one of our swift boxes in the village in anticipation that it may be occupied and those with callers turned them on at the beginning of the season. The first swifts were seen in early May. We then undertook several swift walks throughout the summer in Waltham, usually around dusk, and were very pleased to see a good number of swifts in the area again. The last walk took place on the 1st August.

Our friends from Leicestershire & Rutland Swift Partnership very kindly checked and cleaned all our swift nest boxes on the 13th October. Unfortunately, they didn't find any evidence of swifts nesting this season. Many of our 19 swift boxes are new installations either this year or last, and it can take three or four years for these to be occupied. On the plus side, 3 sparrow pairs had taken advantage of nest boxes on Mere Rd and High St. Also great tits or blue tits had occupied one of the boxes on the village hall.

We hope even more swifts return and start to use our nest boxes next summer. For those of you interested, there is an excellent piece on urban swifts in Leeds in Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles: Summer: at 43 minutes and 48 seconds.