Swifts' nest

A busy day today.

This morning we went to The Late Mate's house to check on things and start up his Land Rover.  This afternoon we went to the studio to turn things around ready for clients coming in for a course on Sunday.

My shopping delivery arrived and made tea early as I had volunteered to make refreshments for the newly formed Penrith Swift Group. There are Swift Groups nationwide, working to address the decline of the bird.

Tonight they were using the help of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust support group to put on a talk by Tanya Hoare in the hall we normally use for our meetings. It was the first time I'd manned the kitchen in that hall but, thankfully, I got a couple of helpers!

The speaker attracted an audience of about 80 and surprised them with shots of how she had about 8 inspection cupboards in her bathroom through to her eaves where swifts nest. Each has a nest-box camera in it. My blip is of an abandoned nest discovered during building renovations. The eggs are about 25mm long and, as swifts can't land on the ground, all the nest material is caught whilst flying.

Nest boxes were on sale and now construction firms are being encouraged to build nest bricks into new buildings. They are clean birds and don't cause a mess with droppings as house martins do.