Save Our Swifts, Masham North Yorkshire

05/10/2026

05/10/2026

Sheffield Swift Network is trying to make our city a place where swifts can continue to breed and return year after year. A visit to Five Rivers Cohousing showed me why they're losing their nesting places and how we can help.

03/10/2026

14/09/2026

Great article in August’s Countryfile Magazine featuring Louise Bentley of Bolton And Bury Swifts - a nice follow up to ‘The other Taylor Swift’ video https://youtu.be/AjBwmfQaImY?feature=shared

11/09/2026

09/09/2026

50,000 boxes! That’s quite a garage project! 🛠

Here’s a milestone we rather like: Swift Conservation reports that nest-box maker John Stimpson (pictured on the right) passed the 50,000-box mark this summer, after more than two decades making boxes for Swifts.

Yup, fifty thousand. Congratulations John!

Our own contribution will be rather more modest, but still ambitious. We’re aiming to install 600 new Swift boxes across the Derbyshire Dales before next breeding season.

We need more walls to put them on!

If you’re in Ashbourne, Matlock, Hathersage, Youlgreave, Bakewell, Rowsley, Darley Dale, Wirksworth, Bradwell or Tideswell, you can put your property forward here:

👉 https://share-eu1.hsforms.com/2UEymG73fQ365QG2BjWF6aQ2fa4ej

No promises of instant tenants, but definitely worth making room for them.



📷 Swift Conservation: https://www.swift-conservation.org/news.htm

05/09/2026

📅 Swift boxes go up in August too, you know.

The swifts may have gone, but that’s exactly why NOW is such a great time to get a nest box up. No need to worry about disturbing nesting birds, plenty of time for the box to weather in naturally before next spring, and you’ll be ready and waiting when they return in late April.

Don’t leave it until May and wish you’d done it sooner — get sorted this month!

📩 [email protected]
📞 07535 270077
🔗 www.actionforswifts.com

30/08/2026

🏠 A big step forward for Swifts.

The new National Planning Policy Framework for England has been published, and it includes new support for Swift bricks.

The policy says new developments should include built-in nest boxes, often called Swift bricks, unless there is a good technical reason not to—this is a massive step in the right direction.

That matters because Swifts have nested in our buildings for centuries. But modern building and renovation work has removed many of the gaps and spaces they once used.

One Swift brick may seem like a small thing, but across thousands of new homes they could provide a huge number of new nesting places.

As guidance, it falls short of being a legal requirement, but it's a start! While we're pleased that there are so many new developments that have included Swift bricks within their designs, this can only help elevate that number.

We hope to see local authorities across Derbyshire implement this and would love to see correctly installed Swift bricks become a normal part of all new developments across the county. 🖤