An extraordinary Long tailed tit!

 What a story of a long tailed tit found in Halewood by a friend of one of our members - Mark Pritchard.

For the love of Swifts- a personal perspective by Carol Cockbain

A room with a view, young bird peeping out.

I grew up with swifts nesting in the roof space just above my bed at the family home in Liverpool. When Spring arrived I couldn’t wait for their screaming calls to wake me in the morning. We had at least four pairs breeding every year and ours were one of three houses in the Close that they chose to breed in. What a privilege. Compared to swallows and martins they are very clean birds around the nesting site: no need to dodge their droppings ever!

Cleaning out the box before nesting.

When I moved to Hale, although there were swifts around none were breeding near to us. I really missed them. We’ve had swift boxes since 2007 and over the years we have had mixed fortune with their breeding success. Our original Schwegler box, with two nest holes, was a Christmas present to Rob: it was heavy but has worked well. We used the prescribed tape recording to attract them in and this meant we had them breeding the first year, although that year the swifts squeezed into the bat box which is hidden at the back. Although they raised young we don’t know how many fledged. As there was only a small chance of bats using the box we blocked it off the following year.

Schwegler & old wooden boxes

By the second season we had added two new boxes on either side. They were made to our own design from marine ply. These were not so successful: we think they got too hot for comfort but they were readily taken up by starlings. Initially we were annoyed by the starlings (not red-listed then) but it soon proved that their first broods had all fledged before the swifts arrived. The swifts stood no nonsense from them and quickly ousted any trying for a second brood and the swifts cleaned the nests thoroughly before nesting began.

The following two years they successfully raised young which were ringed but there have been no further sightings of these birds. As they are such long-lived birds we hope they are still on the wing. Usually only one pair bred in the Schwegler box although we have had two breeders occasionally. Over the following years we had two years when they failed to breed and a couple of years when they failed at the feeding stage, mainly due to prolonged adverse weather conditions. On the whole they fledged at least one young and sometimes up to three.

Tenants

Every year there is a stage when it all goes quiet: you know the young have hatched because you hear them and then - nothing. Panic sets in! Have they failed again? What happened to the young? Was an adult killed somehow? It happens every year and we’ve never got used to it… And one day you’re in the garden - a movement catches your eye, you look up and there’s nothing there! Over the next few days you keep glancing up and suddenly you see the youngsters peeping out at you. Later it can become a bit of a scrum as the jostle for position.

In & Out 

Part of one of the wooden boxes fell onto the roof below in a storm last year, so we removed them both. Our neighbour built a new extension and a garage last year and he has incorporated two swift bricks into the construction and we now have a couple of swift bricks to try out but are keeping the Schwegler boxes too. At least four friends now have boxes on their houses.

In the Autumn we play the calls again for a couple of weeks: this encourages young, passing birds to look at the colony and hopefully attract them to breed the following year. This is the most exciting time, when up to twenty birds are screaming around the house in the evenings while we sit with a glass of wine! (or beer)

Please try to find a way to encourage the swifts to nest on your house. There is plenty of information on the Internet. It’s just so exciting to watch their progress. Honestly, I can’t imagine being without them.

Carol Cockbain

RSPB Liverpool member, Editor and Friend of Pickerings pasture

https://www.swift-conservation.org/

https://www.facebook.com/BoltonAndBurySwifts/

https://twitter.com/bandbswifts

https://www.nhbs.com/1mf-bat-and-swift-nest-box

https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/groups/liverpool

http://www.thefriendsofpickeringspasture.org.uk/index.html

OUR MINI 'RSPB BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH' COUNT 2018

Once again we have undertaken a mini Merseyside birdwatch count:- 18 households across Merseyside, Rainford and Newton sent in their counts, which you can see in the table below. 

This year I’m pleased to say most people were happy with their counts with only a few describing their results and experiences as - disappointing with favourite birds arriving late. The response from the RSPB to ‘bad’ years was to extend the count to three days, perhaps it did the trick? 

SPECIES		No’s of gardens seen in	TOTAL No’s of birds seen	RANK By no’s seen	RANK  By gardens found in	Red Amber Green
1	BLACKBIRD	16	36	4	1st
2	WREN	5	5	15	8
3	BLUE TIT	15	29	5	2j
4	GREAT TIT	12	21	8	4
5	COAL TIT	5	7	14	8
6	LONG TAILED TIT	5	11	13	8
7	ROBIN	15	20	9j	2j
8	BLACKCAP	2	4	16	11j
9	STARLING	9	44	3	6	R
10	DUNNOCK	10	15	11	5j	A
11	HOUSE SPARROW	10	60	2	5j	R
12	FERAL PIGEON	8	26	7	7
13	WOOD PIGEON	13	20	9j	3
14	COLLARED DOVE	10	17	10j	5j
15	GOLDFINCH	9	97	1st	6
16	CHAFFINCH	10	28	6	5j
17	GREENFINCH	4	17	10j	9
18	JAY	1	1	19j	12
19	JACKDAW	2	3	17j	11
20	MAGPIE	10	14	12	5j
21	CROW	3	3	17j	10j
22	GOLDCREST	3	3	17j	10j
23	NUTHATCH	2	2	18j	11
24	SONG THRUSH	1	1	19j	12j	R
25	GREY WAGTAIL	3	4	16j	10j	R
26	SPARROWHAWK	2	2	18j	11j
27	GREY HERON	1	1	19j	12j
28	LESSER REDPOLL	1	1	19j	12j	R
29	PHEASANT	1	1	19j	12j
30	MISTLE THRUSH	1	2	18j	12j	R

GREY SQUIRRELS  2 households, 4 individuals  HEDGEHOGS  0 households,  0 individuals

RED, AMBER GREEN https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-guide/redliststory.aspx

Last year’s results:  http://liverpoolrspb.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/big-garden-birdwatch-2017-event.html

For those of you who have enjoyed taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch and would like to record more, please consider joining the BTO Garden BirdWatch , this will involve you recording your birds every week and uploading them to the BTO website. The count includes other nature sightings such as insects & mammals and also records the type of food you put out, more recently they have included your sightings of diseased & dead specimens.

 http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw

Many thanks to all those who took part in our little survey, I hope you find it of interest. Please free to add your comments and observations, on our blog.