We booked our summer holiday for this year back in January. The usual discussion was had, “Everyone happy with Greece?”, “Yes, but where else can we go?”. My only request for a beach holiday is that we find somewhere where I can snorkel. I can’t lie on the beach for more than an hour without needing to explore! We always talked about heading to Italy, but never committed to it, until this year. Billie, my partner, suggested a few locations and I googled them to find out the snorkel potential, which was supposed to be amazing, great! A few minutes later, I thought I’d try my luck and find out whether there are any swifts in the area, Calabria, nearest town Tropea. A slightly disappointing search returned no results, not one, not even a mention! Oh well, at least my family wouldn’t have to endure my childish excitement and restless speculations about foraging potential for swift super colonies, social interaction between age groups, suitable architecture of buildings up to 850 years old, upon finding the largest colonies I’ve ever seen….ahem (sorry family!).
Upon arrival in Tropea and another ancient town Pizzo, a few miles away, I was struck by how many swifts there were, especially in the evenings towards roosting time. There were thousands in each location. I watched at both towns on separate evenings as the nesting adults returned to their chambers in putlog holes in the stucco and under the roof tiles at the wall plate. One very noticeable feature was the amount of swifts which weren’t nesting. Juveniles, and sub-adults were frantically looking for chambers and were screamed at by the nesting pairs inside. At a guess, I’d say there were a few hundred nest sites in each town; large colonies by all accounts, but not as large as they could be, considering the swifts in the skies. A few thousand swifts were leaving the areas of both towns at sunset. It made me think, how many of those swifts are mature, breeding age adults, not just juveniles? They would all have been attracted by the large historic colony in the towns, but how many of those clouds of swifts and screaming parties will actually get to breed in their lifespan, due to limited nestsite availability….throughout Europe. We generally only concern ourselves with local populations, some of us at a village level, some county wide, and perhaps fewer, nationally. I’m certain that we need to assess the plight of swifts, and other threatened migrant species at the international level to which they are linked with.
Another amazing feature of the swifts in these towns was that no-one was taking any notice of them! I suppose many of us only start to notice things when we’re at the point of losing them, or they’re gone. Anyway, it’s safe to say that Italy, and Calabria are in the mix for January’s holiday discussion, next year!
Swifts above Pizzo, 6th July 8:20pm. Best watched full screen (click the 4 triangle icon, bottom right), sound on, thanks to my old mate Bob for the soundtrack.
Nesting potential – Putlog holes for scaffold. Many are unsuitable for swifts but could be easily adapted.