best advice to give to home owners?

[Aylsham Swift Group]

Hi,

I'd like to pick your collective brains about what advice to give to home owners in a very common scenario. This is where a house has been re-roofed, natural nest sites lost and the home owner wants to replace the natural nest sites with boxes. 

1) Should we strongly advise the home owner to play calls and where is it best to position the speaker to try to attract the birds into the box instead of trying to get back into their original nest site? 

2) Where should the boxes be positioned relative to the original nest sites (if known)?

This is the kind of detail that I'm often unsure about, so I'd appreciate any advice based on others' experience.

Thanks

Pat Grocott

Aylsham Swift Group 

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[Mike Priaulx]

Hi Pat,

I have such a case coming up, where unfortunately the resident (a council tenant) didn't contact me until after the roof was complete, so it was too late to retain the nest sites within the eaves.

(In some cases you could cut an entrance hole in the horizontal soffit board in the original location so you could create a nest space that way,

but my case is an open eaves style roof so that's not possible.)

I'm putting boxes as close to the original locations as possible.

I'm mostly using Peak Boxes bottom-entrance boxes as from my limited experience these are the best ones for fast take-up, as Model 30s do get used but take an extra year or two.

I'll suggest they play calls from a speaker trapped by a window beneath the boxes, as I find they just go to the speaker if it's too close to the boxes. (A speaker inside the boxes hasn't ever worked for me.)

That's just my personal experience, others may well suggest differently and equally valid!

All the best,

Mike

Islington and Hackney Swifts Groups

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best advice to give to home owners?

Aylsham Swift Group <aylsha...@gmail.com>: Mar 02 10:24AM

[Louise at Bolton and Bury Swifts]

Hi Mike,

I'm just wondering if the council have kept the roof as open eaves style what have they done that is physically preventing the Swifts from re-entering their original nest? 

Thanks 

Louise

 

     

 

Bolton & Bury Swifts

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From: 'Mike Priaulx' via swiftslocalnetwork <swiftsloc...@googlegroups.com>
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Subject: [SLN] best advice to give to home owners?

 

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[Mike Priaulx]

Hi Louise,

I'm not sure exactly what the council have done, but a similar home with nest sites on the same estate was re-roofed, and the nest sites turned out to be blocked

(although luckily new nesting places seemed to be found in adjacent houses, in that case).

Therefore, I am playing safe and getting boxes in place.

It's difficult as these houses are in Harrow, so it takes me over an hour to get there, so I can't easily monitor the situation!

All the best,

Mike

+++

Louise at Bolton and Bury Swifts <super...@outlook.com>: Mar 03 08:20AM

Hi Mike,

 

I'm just wondering if the council have kept the roof as open eaves style what have they done that is physically preventing the Swifts from re-entering their original nest?

 

Thanks

 

Louise

 

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[Louise at Bolton and Bury Swifts]

Hi Mike,

When you manage to get over there, I'd be really interested to hear what you find. As you know I do quite a bit of work with social housing contractors and I'm keen to learn more about how different methods of works affect the swifts access.

Thanks,

Louise

 

     

 

Bolton & Bury Swifts

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From: 'Mike Priaulx' via swiftslocalnetwork <swiftsloc...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2026 1:53:58 PM
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