Highcliffe is one of the areas of Winchester that we survey for nesting Swifts every year.   This suburb is made up of two large areas of housing built by Winchester City Council for rent, mostly between the two World Wars, with a substantial number of houses dating from the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, much of it terraced. As in so many urban areas, opportunities for cavity-nesting birds such as Swifts, House Sparrows and Starlings to breed in gaps or crevices in

There was a debate in the House of Lords last week to discuss the proposed Amendment 245 to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. This has been put forward by Lord Zac Goldsmith and proposes that a universal Swift brick be built into all new homes constructed in the UK. This would prove to be a game-changing moment for Swifts (and our other red-listed home-nesting birds) because both the last Tory Government and the current Labour Government have refused to do this to date. O