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

In 2018, while doing a survey of breeding swifts in Winchester, we discovered a large colony of the birds nesting at Trussell Crescent. Trussell Crescent is made up of two large, curving 3-storey terraces of flats and maisonettes, built by Winchester City Council in Weeke in the early 1950s. This was the only place in Weeke where we found swifts nesting. All the nests were at the back of the Crescent. Swifts were accessing their nests either through gaps in the soffit, or, mo