Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust is a founding member of the Leicestershire & Rutland Swift Partnership. The Partnership is keen to receive further Swift sightings this year. In particular records of:

• Breeding Birds in 'traditional' sites in buildings;
• Birds using artificial sites for breeding particularly whether in a Swift Brick or a nest box; and
• Successful breeding - if you can tell - it is very difficult!

With lockdown still in place, what better way is there to spend your exercise period, than to assess how well Swifts are doing in your local area?

You can submit your results to the Leicestershire & Rutland Ornithological Society, or to the RSPB Swift Mapper App, or to Nature Spot. All these records will end up in the records at the Leicestershire & Rutland Environment Records Centre and will be used to update Swift Alert maps; areas around which Planners will be seeking the incorporation of nest bricks in any new developments.

We have now received from the County details of over 100 sites where Swift Brick conditions were suggested to the Local Planning Authority in the last 2 years. It would be great if anybody would volunteer to check, in your own patch, whether the condition has been met and has been implemented, and if so, whether the Swift Bricks or boxes are successful.  Please let Peter Williams know at landrswifts@gmail.com if you are able to volunteer and for which area and he'll provide you with the details.