Should gables be protected?

[stringvest]

Interesting to watch SWIFTS darting about in Marmora Rd. They look like they are nesting in several gabled houses. I don't know much about them and thought they nested in craggy rock places? They nip up under the gables and are there for a split second before darting away again. I know they spend all their time "on the wing" ....

Perhaps new builds and refurbs should include nesting sites and gables to make up for some of the different losses of habitat? Thanks.

[jaywalker]

Yes, you are absolutely right. The swift population has been declining quite markedly in recent years - and this is partly the problem. In my childhood we had a C20th house which had gables and the swifts were a real treat each year as they first mud-patched last year's nests and then swooped in to feed their young. Then we moved to an older one and the tradition continued. The decline may also be due to a lower concentration of flying insects (e.g. the recent drought will not have helped).

As with bats, we should pay much more attention to providing shelter for our native fauna. Instead we have a return to fox-hunting promised by the woman masquerading as the 'people's' prime minister. Truly unspeakable.

[Green Goose]

jaywalker Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> As with bats, we should pay much more attention to

> providing shelter for our native fauna. Instead we

> have a return to fox-hunting promised by the woman

> masquerading as the 'people's' prime minister.

> Truly unspeakable.

Get a life and spare us your boring politicalisation of every topic you respond to.

It's so repetitive, infantile and boring.

GG

[Burbage]

stringvest Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Perhaps new builds and refurbs should include

> nesting sites and gables to make up for some of

> the different losses of habitat? Thanks.

Many do, thanks to the several sorts of 'swift brick' currently available, which are marketed to developers as a way of ticking the responsibility box. I don't know if they work, but I'm told they're being used.

I also don't know if lack of nest space is the reason that they, like the house martins, aren't so noticeable any more in London. The swift-brick makers would like me to think so, I'm sure. But I can never look at a nice idea without wondering what the catch is, and a glance through reports from elsewhere suggest that, instead of spending the summer, from May to August, in London as they did maybe five years ago, they're now continuing north. That matches what I've noticed recently, which is swifts here for a couple of weeks in May, and again at the end of the summer, with nothing in between.

That might be bad news - a sign that London's no longer suitable and/or that global warming is forcing them to migrate further. Or it could be good news - a sign that our industrialised countryside isn't quite the sterile wasteland of agrichemical profiteering it used to be (though, considering the rustic Brexit vote, I wouldn't count on it). I don't know. But I suspect that what could be done is being done, and the rest is up to the birds.

[jaywalker]

Dear me, GG. The Tory party's expression of stability and order and adulthood. My word, you think that Green issues are not political? And as such they are boring? Swifts are just birds that may or may not go extinct (its nature, God will provide???). Well, sounds political to me, as with your identical ready-made word-for-word response to mine on foxes: no danger of boring, repetitive, infantile posts with you! I have so much to learn from you GG - I am truly grateful!

Burbage, I absolutely agree with you. My cat is breathing heavily (too many road restriction bumps causing particulates that are killing children and animals). The air in London is often foul and designated as dangerous by the EU (this is a boring, repetitive, infantile, political point - we are leaving the EU so no one need care, its just how it is).

[Green Goose]

Jaywalker,

It's your tendency to divert a thread about swifts with a snide political comment is something you seem to specialise in.

This is what is infantile and boring.

As for your assessment of my Green credentials and political inclinations, all I can say is you are very wide of the mark.

GG

[rendelharris]

Somebody who believes that saying "get a life" is a valid response to another's argument accusing other people of being boring and infantile is definitely a matter for the pot and kettle department.

[Villager]

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Somebody who believes that saying "get a life" is

> a valid response to another's argument accusing

> other people of being boring and infantile is

> definitely a matter for the pot and kettle

> department.

Not quite up to your usual sanctimonious, judgmental offerings. You really must try harder.

GG

[rendelharris]

Villager Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> rendelharris Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Somebody who believes that saying "get a life"

> is

> > a valid response to another's argument accusing

> > other people of being boring and infantile is

> > definitely a matter for the pot and kettle

> > department.

>

> Not quite up to your usual sanctimonious,

> judgmental offerings. You really must try harder.

> GG

Oh dear. You appear to have just given away the fact that you operate under two different usernames! Assuming I'm addressing the signatory of the above, you took a perfectly reasonable if somewhat off topic comment by jaywalker and told him/her to "get a life" and that they were "infantile and boring" - yet you accuse others of being sanctimonious and judgemental. Excellent. Perhaps it's the strain of maintaining two different personalities that gets you so confused?

ETA Villager joined the forum 26/12/2008. Green Goose joined forum 27/12/2008!

[JohnL]

Can I mention the old wives tale

Swifts never land :)

[JoeLeg]

Green Goose Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> As for your assessment of my Green credentials and

> political inclinations, all I can say is you are

> very wide of the mark.

> GG

Well, if you are Villager as well, then weren't you voting UKIP at the last GE?

['bout now]

From nesting birds to UKIP in 10 posts. Impressive and hilarious.

[rendelharris]

JoeLeg Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Green Goose Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> >

> > As for your assessment of my Green credentials

> and

> > political inclinations, all I can say is you

> are

> > very wide of the mark.

> > GG

>

> Well, if you are Villager as well, then weren't

> you voting UKIP at the last GE?

Looking back, both Green Goose and Villager were 'kippers in 2014 - what a coincidence!

['bout now]

Are Swifts immigrants or resident non doms?

[Nigello]

https://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2017/05/04/manifestos.aspx?utm_source=may_homepage

RSPB (claims it) manages to be a-political when it comes to its raison-d'etre.

[Green Goose]

RH,

Sounds like you are developing more of conspiracy theories.

[JoeLeg]

In fairness, it seems pretty plausible, given you signed a post made by Villager?

[rendelharris]

Green Goose Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> RH,

>

> Sounds like you are developing more of conspiracy

> theories.

As pointed out above, you wrote a post under the handle of Villager but signed it as GG - are you going to claim it's not you and that you're not using two user names? Come on, if you're not a simple denial would be more powerful than accusing me of conspiracy theorising.

[jaywalker]

Nigello Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> https://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martin

> harper/archive/2017/05/04/manifestos.aspx?utm_sour

> ce=may_homepage

> RSPB (claims it) manages to be a-political when it

> comes to its raison-d'etre.

I really don't think this will do. Bird welfare is political through and through. You want cheap crops, I want country song-birds unharmed by pesticides. I want cheap housing, you want gabled housing built to benefit swifts. Birds are always-already involved in the human, and the human is always-already antagonistic and political. You do not need to read much of what is posted on this forum to realise this.

I like birds in a pie and birds singing in my garden. I am human, riven.