THE people of Kendal and surrounding areas have been called upon to help arrest the decline of a bird species whose numbers are ‘plummeting’.

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), more than half of the UK’s swifts have disappeared in the last two decades.

The insect-eating avians, which almost never land apart from at their nesting sites, fly to these shores from Africa every summer.

And now conservation group Kendal Swifts is asking people to do their bit to help halt their decline.

Group volunteer Rosalind Taylor said ‘less human pressure’ along migration routes - owing to lockdown - led to swifts apparently arriving ‘at least a week earlier than usual’ this year.

“They are faithful to their mates and nest sites, and year after year they will use the same crack, crevice or hole, and the stone buildings in Kendal are wonderful places for providing just the right sort of openings,” she said.

“They don’t go into buildings and they don’t damage them; they just use the gaps in the stonework. If you have a Swift nesting in your home or work place you should consider yourself one of a lucky few.”

However, the RSPB reports that many of the birds are returning to the UK to find their nest sites gone ‘as more and more old buildings are demolished or renovated’.

Ms Taylor said Kendal Swifts was calling on people with extra time on their hands to count the number of swifts they saw above their homes at any one time.

This data will then be used in a national reporting scheme and will aid understanding about the areas in which the birds need the most assistance.

Email rosalind.taylor@gmail.com for more information.