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Swift numbers, UK (1 Viewer)

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Winterdune

Well-known member
Swift numbers seem way down in our village in coastal east Norfolk compared to last year. Very worrying. Has anyone else noticed this?
Sean
 
Swifts seem fine locally, but less Martins than other years. The village I grew up in used to have skies filled with House Martins in the summer, but baely one or two now,
 
Had 80+ swifts last Wednesday, and seen nesting house martins when twitching the Eleonora's. But in general, very minimal swallow and martin activity but noticing an increase in swifts around my area.
 
Seems to be a shortage, or maybe just a delay, in my part of Lanarkshire. Normally by now we'll have a settled population showing regularly. Thus far, I'm swift-less, and my mate has only seen 2 locally.
 
In terms of flying over the houses in the Rd. (NEast London, fairly sure none breed) during the day my current numbers compare with previous years, ie anything between nowt and a dozen +.
Swallows certainly down on last year…and House Martins are almost non-existent! 😮

Also, by same date last year 12 Hobby sightings….this year just 3! 😮
 
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House and Sand Martin numbers are scary low on the River Ness. Walking from Fort Augustas down towards the castle, so few that it was noticeable to even non-birders visiting the area.
 
concur with all of the above....just not looking up and seeing swallows and martins is disconcerting......swift numbers seem lower too but not substantially like the others - is there any evidence backing up this elsewhere?
 
Minimal amounts of swallows and house martins at worth marshes today. At least 25 swifts though which gave me a run around trying to photograph them. There were only 4-5 swallows, and the same amount for house martins, which is quite disconcerting to say the least.
 
I only saw swallows at Brandon Marsh yesterday - in 4 hours - not a single swift or martin!
 
Managed a decent group of c70 Swifts moving ahead of the rain ( South Yorkshire) one day last week.As others have said fewer Martins/ Swallows I wonder how people's negative attitudes to having a bit of mess around is affecting them? Obviously illegal to destroy active nests but I'm sure it goes on a lot at the building stage on the quiet, also I have seen a number of houses using deterents i.e streamers. I know some of the more forward thinking house builders are putting those special bricks/ tiles in to help Swifts.
It's also relatively inexpensive to close up any holes (can never remember the names of what goes where) where once Swifts would have gotten in.
 
The first time I went to see the Eleonora's I saw house martins nesting in the houses in the small village near the field where you can park, but driving through the same place twice when I went to see the falcon for seconds and thirds, all the nests I saw had gone, so either I was looking at the wrong houses or the house owners had destroyed them.
 
After 2 weeks in Ireland in the middle of June it was interesting to note how swallows and martins seem to be almost every town/ village (swifts a bit less) over there while in south east england there seem to be just hanging on in lots of areas. I guess this is down how we manage our buildings and how much we spray our insects
 
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