Join in with Lewes Swift Watch!
If you live in, or visit Lewes, you can join in with Lewes Swift Watch!
We would love it if you could contribute to our records of the Swifts in Lewes by sending us your sightings - from your home, your garden, or anywhere around Lewes! If you know what a Swift looks like and sounds like - you can join in with Swift Watch!
The RSPB website includes a useful page which explains how to distinguish between Swifts, Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins - and it includes a sample of the Swift call. Click on this link to open the relevant RSPB page in a new window:
Images below by Mike Langman from the RSPB wesbite showing, left to right:
Swift, Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin.
N.B. If you see a bird perching on a tree, wire or fence, it will not be a Swift!
What we would like to know:
- Date and time;
- A good description of the location, e.g., the address nearest to your sighting;
- Approximate number of Swifts seen;
- Weather conditions, e.g., any helpful information about whether it is raining, windy, sunny or cloudy, and the temperature.
If you are able to add any more details, that would be great! For example, are the Swifts flying low? Could they be prospecting for a nest site by repeatedly showing an interest in a particular building? Did you see a Swift enter or leave a nest?
Send us your sightings via:
Our Facebook group: Lewes Swift Supporters
Twitter: @LewesSwifts
Email: lewesswifts@gmail.com
This website: using the "Contact us" form on the Home page
In 2020, sightings from Swift Watch reported by Facebook helped us to discover a new colony of eight Swift nests in Malling! We saw the first Swifts return on 22nd April 2020, 25th April 2021, 22nd April 2022 and 7th April in 2023 - so it is not long to wait!
Photograph by Dom Greves taken during a Swift survey in 2020 - Swift entering under the eaves of a home in Western Road. @domgreves