In the spring of 2007 I hung four Swift nest boxes on our new house in Thornton in Craven, North Yorkshire. The first pair arrived over the village on 3rd May. My observatiobns during May revealed just two breeding pairs in the village, the nearest to our house asbout 300m away. On the few fine days up to three non- breeding birds screamed around the existing nest sites, I started to play a CD of Swift calls and by late May I had up to four Swifts flying near to the boxes. By June it became clear that one bird in particular was very keen to seriously investigate potential nest sites on the house. The main problem was the weather! Very large amounts of rain fell and the temperature remained cool. Add to this frequent strong wind and you do not have a good season in which to watch Swifts. For much of June and July the non- breeding Swifts were simply absent over the village and big colonies in Skipton and nearby Earby, whilst the breeders were forced to feed themselves and gather food for their young, very low over water. On two occasions there were no non breeding Swifts around for well over a week.
But on the fine days in between they returned to the village and prospected for nest sites and screamed by the two existing nests. I had some lovely views of prospecting Swifts landing on the wall by our eaves and on the artificial House Martin nests and sometimes on the Swift nest boxes.
By early August a single bird was often seen prospecting, especially during the morning. It would circle round and round above the house then descend to approach the eaves and nestboxes, but hardly ever land. When joined by other Swifts it would scream and display. My best guess is that this bird is an unpaired male which has selected a potential nest site. This is how the 2007 season ended. On taking the boxes down in the winter I found three Swift feathers in box 2 so on one occasion at least, a Swift had visited one of our boxes. I am eagerly anticipating the 2008 season- will the prospecting Swift make it back?
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