A few years back, Winchester City Council agreed to install a Swift box on all the Council properties that they were reroofing in mitigation for the many bird nesting sites being lost during the insulation/roof upgrades. The Winchester City Council area covers not just the City itself but approximately 250 square miles of central Hampshire, going as far as Sutton Scotney in the north, West Meon in the east, and Hambledon in the south. Swift boxes installed at Highcliffe, Winc

Fulflood in Winchester has long been an important breeding place for swifts. It is an area characterised by large numbers of Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses. Many of these houses used to have places for swifts to nest in gaps under the eaves, under the barge boarding on gables or at the edge of the roof on dormer windows. When we first surveyed Winchester for nesting swifts, we found 27 such natural nest sites in use in Fulflood. Young Swift chicks in a box © Robi