Caring for Swifts (Apus apus) 2024
During the season of 2024 (June - September), I went about taking on the reasonability's of caring for any swifts that came into care at Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue. The previous year, we did well with the swifts, however, I did notice that many required intricate and time consuming treatments and care.
Swifts are what I would describe as a 'specialist' species. Meaning that they require a delicate approach, lots of patience and very time consuming amount of efforts if you are to be successful with them. They don't require anything special in terms of facilities, but they do need experienced carers. With our bird nursery busy with mountains of demanding mouths/ beaks constantly demanding food from our animal carers, the idea of adding to the already 'heavy workload' with these particular birds, wouldn't work very well.
Therefore, considering I had the setup at my home already and I was busy working towards the campaign for the charities move, i.e. spending a lot of time at home on the computer/ phone, I decided that I would take on the roll of 'The swift carer' for this years intake.
Equipment required for swift care
As with all care towards sick, injured and or orphaned wildlife, preparation is key. Having absolutely everything to hand is important. An experienced wildlife rehabilitator, will usually have many, if not most of these items at all times. I started preparing my outdoor office space around February time, way before any swifts were making their way over to us here in the UK. I have broken down the equipment I used into two separate sections ( First Aid - Ongoing Care ).
Work Area
Having a suitable work area away from anything domestic (household noise, pets, children ) is important. Firstly there should be considerations towards hygiene and cleanliness. All wild birds and animals can carry certain pathogens, bacteria and also potential zoonotic diseases. But also, the continuous exposure to the household environment and noise, can be extremely stressful towards these birds. Which could be considered an animal welfare risk. My 'facility' was a garden log cabin, situated away from the house and out of the way of any major foot traffic too. Its heated, it has electric and its also insulated, which helped with sound suppression from the outdoor environment too. There is also good exposure to natural light source via some glazed windows, which also helps with good ventilation.
The cabins floor was initially just woodchip floor boards, but I replaced this for a vinyl floor to help keep the work area tidy and more manageable.
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I went about getting some workshop tables, as for a) they were cheap b) they would prove very useful for storage of equipment and c) they would support the laminated worktops I put in for a more sanitary work space. If this was to be for a more longer term work area, then I would have considered stainless steel work benches, but these can be very expensive and loud if not muffled properly.
By the end of March, the work area was complete and I started getting the supplies and equipment.
My Swift rehabilitation work area.
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First Aid Equipment
Having a suitable work area away from anything domestic (household noise, pets, children ) is important. Firstly there should be considerations towards hygiene and cleanliness. All wild birds and animals can carry certain pathogens, bacteria and also potential zoonotic diseases. But also, the continuous exposure to the household environment and noise, can be extremely stressful towards these birds. Which could be considered an animal welfare risk. My 'facility' was a garden log cabin, situated away from the house and out of the way of any major foot traffic too. Its heated, it has electric and its also insulated, which helped with sound suppression from the outdoor environment too. There is also good exposure to natural light source via some glazed windows, which also helps with good ventilation.
The cabins floor was initially just woodchip floor boards, but I replaced this for a vinyl floor to help keep the work area tidy and more manageable.