MORE THAN 30 bird boxes have been hooked up in farms across Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire aiding summer-returning swifts.

Brought about by the combined efforts of the Allenford and Martin Down Farmer Clusters and Megan Lock, the Farmland Biodiversity Advisor for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, the drive saw 31 new nests and eight 'calling speakers', funded through three grants.

The swifts fly back from Africa every spring; however, the lack of nesting spots due to newer, sealed-off housing constructions poses a problem for the birds.

Swifts prefer nesting under roof eaves or within walls. However, potential nesting sites, even in older buildings, are dwindling as renovations reduce access and inhibit the creation of apt cavities.

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More than 30 boxes have been hooked up through the project (Image: GWCT) A survey conducted by Megan across the Allenford and the Martin Down Farmer Clusters, constituting two-thirds of the Martin Down Farmer Supercluster, registered zero sightings of the birds.

This led the local farmers to implement drastic changes, and they sought advice to woo the birds back onto their lands.

The project's financial backing comes from a multiplicity of sources - The Swire Charitable Trust through GWCT, Fordingbridge Greener Living, and a Hampshire County Councillor Grant credited to Cllr Edward Heron.

Across three days, volunteers from Hampshire Swifts teamed up with Megan to tour farms and assemble the nests.

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With distinct designs specific to swifts and packed in with audio callers, the 31 new boxes now decorate farmhouses and other associated buildings.

The callers, covering 10 nest boxes, play bird calls that lure other swifts prospecting for nesting sites.

Megan says: "It’s been fantastic. We’ve covered an area from Salisbury to Fordingbridge to Cranborne – the clusters together cover 17,500 hectares.

"These boxes provide man-made nesting sites, which helps to create those sites that are disappearing, and the callers let the swifts know they are there which greatly increases the chances of swifts using the boxes.

"It would be wonderful if we did get a nesting pair this year, but I think it might take two or three years, this is a long-term project for us and myself and the members of the Farmer Clusters will be monitoring the boxes and are hoping for them to become successful breeding sites in the future. We are already looking at how expand on this project going forward."