There must be quite a few village churches in Sussex where Swifts are sitting on eggs right now. As Swift Champion I need to make a list of all these churches so that we have a record for future conservation.

The RSPB this week have moved Swifts into the AMBER list of species needing more conservation protection and they are lending their support to the initiative of recording where these birds have their nests.

I would like SOS members and everyone who reads this message to visit as many local churches these summer evenings as they can, and try to see if Swifts are flying around and entering, probably around the spire area. The best time is at sunset on calm evenings and early mornings. Please can you send your sightings to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I need the name of the church and the village/town plus date when seen. The number of birds seen would also be useful. I shall also need a grid reference, but if you don’t know how to do this bit, I can do this for you. A list of churches which do not appear to have Swifts nesting will also be useful as we will then know they have been checked.

This information will become part of our SOS data base and if at any time in the future someone reports scaffolding going up or any renovation started, we can hopefully intervene and help to prevent the nest sites from being destroyed.

If your records are part of the Atlas survey work, please be assured they will eventually come into the SOS data base and therefore will be added to my list in due course.

Audrey Wende – Swift Champion