Swift ambassadors

Swift ambassadors - St Anne's Primary School, Fair Green

St Anne's Primary School is the first Swift ambassador school in Navan!

Four Swift nest boxes have been attached to the front of the building to provide much needed nesting space for Navan's Swifts. Swifts are under threat from loss of nest sites, climate change, and declines in insect numbers. Swifts like to live where other Swifts live, so a caller system is needed to attract birds to a new nest site such as this one. You might see the young birds looking for a nest site: they will fly past prospective sites brushing or ‘banging’ the entrance with their wings to check if anyone is living there yet.

Look up: if you’re here in the morning or at dusk in the summer months, you will likely see Swifts swooping in the skies above. 

Listen: can you hear the Swift caller system, or perhaps the Swifts themselves? (Swifts are migratory birds that call Navan home and live here between May and August).

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Check roofs and eaves in the summer before doing building renovations.  Swifts are clean and fascinating birds and need all the help they can get as many have lost their nests in recent decades due to renovations blocking off their nest holes.

https://www.wildaboutnavan.com

http://navancycling.ie

Navan’s Living Heritage Audio Tour
  1. Swift ambassadors - St Anne's Primary School, Fair Green
  2. Wildflowers at the Infirmary_ Bridge St.
  3. Birds of the Boyne_ The Ramparts
  4. Floodplains of the Boyne_ The Ramparts Canal Towpath
  5. Our mighty rivers_ Poolboy Bridge
  6. Hedgerow Biodiversity_ Old Rail Line behind Beaufort College
  7. Old Railway Bridge_ Academy St.
  8. New Bridge
  9. Bats at the castle_ Convent Rd
  10. Parks are good for you - and can be for nature, too!_ Blackwater Park
  11. Sculptures galore_ Academy St. /Dublin Rd.
  12. Swan River_ Dublin Rd. /Swan Lane
  13. Wind force! _ Flower Hill
  14. Navan Living Heritage art trail!