The Swifts of High Summer

Summer can feel like it arrives on wings, and nothing captures that better than swifts. They show up almost overnight, slice across the evening sky around old buildings and church towers, and then vanish just as quickly after the height of the season. That beauty comes with a hard truth: swifts are now on the red list, and their decline is a signal that the natural systems we depend on are under strain. We’re nothing without nature, and this conversation is our plea to treat that as a practical reality, not a slogan.  

We dig into what makes swift birds so astonishing: they are true masters of flight.

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Transcript

Why Swifts Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:55

I was inspired by this particular bird, which is very sadly on the red list for being an endangered species. But fear not, there is those out there like the Royal Society Perfection of birds and other charities that are working hard to help restore habitats for these particular birds. Without nature, we, dear listener, are nothing. And I think we should do everything we possibly can within our power to help them. They will be leaving our shores very soon, but the bird I'm talking about is the wonderful Sweethead. A master of the sky. Every summer they appear almost overnight. A black shape silhouetted over the evening sky. Screaming around old buildings that we have in the UK, like Victorian buildings and church towers. And it feels just as quickly as they go they come, they are gone after the height of British summer. I don't think many of us understand how much of a time these particular masters of flight spend in the sky. They remind us of the fleetingness of our existence as well as summer. The acrobats of the sky, if I was going to call

Masters Of Flight In Midair Life

SPEAKER_00 2:38

these a plane, they would be like the red arrows, masters of the sky. They are able to do things what others cannot do whilst flying. I'm talking about sleeping while they fly, mating, eating and drinking. They have the speed and agility that us we can only imagine. And the younger birds can be in the air for years. So if you're not inspired by now, whenever will you be? Part of the problem, but not all of the problem, is that we're renovating this is just one of the aspects, our buildings, which is great because obviously we want to keep these old buildings up, but these these birds can nest in like the gaps in the buildings, like in the roofs and things. So if you are renovating, then could you invest in some swift boxes? Which you can put a few up, and then that way your building's nicely maintained, and there is a habitat because these birds travel all the way from Africa crossing the Sahara and Europe to come to Britain so that they can mate and rear their young. Some people used to call them the devil's birds because of their shrills, but they are a symbol of summer freedom and homecoming and resilience.

Renovations And Nesting Space

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Unfortunately, due to the decline in insects and climate change as well, they are on the red list. They are in so much danger. There's a number of theories why the insect population is declining. I personally feel it cannot have helped all these awful pesticides that you know we've lost our way in so many ways of like thinking profit above nature. Like, you know, nature is this force, and if if humans don't learn to respect it, nature will just decide that it doesn't want us on the planet anymore, so we really need to learn to help. I know the insect population has declined because when I was a child, when you went anywhere in the car, the in the summer the windscreen would be splattered with insects, and all not good for the insects,

Insect Decline And Climate Pressure

SPEAKER_00 5:04

but it just showed you how many insects there were. So we need to really help them because they tend to come back to the same place. So if we are changing buildings, even if people are building new buildings on the site of an old building, please put these swift boxes up. We have changed, but this bird, this beautiful, resilient bird, has not changed in so many ways. They spend most of their life airborne and they can fly for thousands of miles without needing to land. To me, they feel like hope, and we should do everything we can possibly do to save and offer our services to these wonderful, wonderful birds. And even though when you look up at the sky and they look dark against the silhouette, they're actually kind of like a a kind of dark brown rather than black. And they you can tell them because they've got like an like a pale patch across the front area. Some have described them as looking like boomerangs. To me, they're absolute masters of flight, and I feel there's a certain beauty to them, and I would be honored for them to come and nest in my old building, and I will be investing in a Swift box to help these beautiful creatures. They are part of the skies as much as the clouds. And we don't own not that we ever own any nature, but we borrow their company for this period of time where they choose to visit our shores. Accepting Swifts on their terms, so it's a fleeting moment, but a beautiful example. Oh my gosh, as I was recording this, I've just seen a few fly past the window. Oh my god, how beautiful! I really can't believe that. I I wish I had this on video. It's actually really feel a bit tearful. If that is not a sign from Mother Nature herself, I really don't know what that is. So, yeah, perhaps loving Swifts is accepting their terms. They will never kind of perch for us, linger at our feet like a robin will, but they will be gloriously wild and visiting us on their terms. If you want to show your love for them, we need to protect them by making room for them on our roofs,

A Swift Sighting And A Promise

SPEAKER_00 8:32

by looking up when they return each spring and by making sure for generations to come children will hear those shrieks as they race across the evening skies. So thank you for listening, dear listeners, and I hope to see you on the next episode of this podcast.