We have recently completed the first Phase of the Basingstoke Swift Streets Project, under which Hampshire Swifts, teamed up with Natural Basingstoke and Birds on the Brink, to increase the numbers of Swifts and House Martins in the town. Southeast England has lost 75% of its swift population since 1994, largely due to the loss of traditional nesting sites, and the project aims to play a part of their recovery locally. We had previously installed some scattered boxes in Basin

The Black Redstart - Phoenicurus ochruros, to give it its scientific name - is a small, Robin-sized bird with an eponymous red tail. The ‘Black’ in its name comes from the male’s plumage which is sooty grey, with black on its face and breast, while the female’s plumage is grey-brown. It belongs to the Chat group of birds, a subgroup of the Thrush family. It is a migrant species that breeds across Central and Southern Europe. In the milder breeding areas, the Black Redstart is