Surveyor (Not on a Reserve) (Brighton and Hove Swift Surveyor)

Do you live in or around Brighton & Hove? Do you want to contribute to the conservation of swift populations in the city? If so, we want to hear from you!

Swifts are fantastic, highly visible and noisy birds that spend the winter in Africa before migrating back to UK every spring to nest in urban areas. However, they need our help to investigate significant declines in populations over the last decade. One of the reasons for the decline is thought to be a reduction in nesting sites in buildings. To help our swifts we first need to know where they are nesting. This is where you come in!

We need as many volunteers as possible to survey swifts in Brighton & Hove in order to identify colonies and nest sites so that we can work towards protecting them and establishing new sites.

You need to be able to carry out evening surveys between May and end-July. The surveys will involve walking along streets within your local area, recording low flying groups of swifts and, where possible, identifying nesting colonies.

Having some basic skills in bird ID and finding nesting sites would be beneficial, but not necessary, as a training event will be run and all resources will be provided.

You should:

• Live in or close to Brighton and Hove

• Be enthusiastic and committed

• Be prepared to engage with public if approached while surveying

Swifts are not active in poor weather so surveys need only be undertaken when it is dry.

Volunteers will be assigned specific streets or urban areas within Brighton and Hove. Ideally, this will be close to where you live or work but if there are overlaps, we may ask you to choose another area.

We hope to pair volunteers up for the surveys - perhaps your friend, family member or colleague would like to take part too?