As renovation works get under way at Clara Vale Village Hall, CVCG founding member Gordon Pollinger spotted men with a cherry picker machine used for accessing the roof and saw an opportunity to have some stock nestboxes for Swifts put up. The contractors were obliging and so we now have seven nextboxes fitted.

Swifts are fast, agile fliers with a similar silhouette to a Swallow or Housemartin, and although looking black against the sky, are actually dark brown in colour. They spent almost all of lives on the wing. Swifts generally visit the UK  from April to August.

The next boxes are specially designed with the entrance porthole at an underside angle, which will hopefully attract the Swifts to the sheltered position on the north side of the Hall under the eaves.  The narrow, angled nestbox entrance also has some deterrent effect on other small birds.

You can find out more about Swifts by visiting the RSPB’s Swift information page.