How far would you go to help nature? Would you walk naked through the streets of London (in autumn) to highlight the declining population of Swifts in Britain? My Naturespace with Haith's guest did and she has in mind what could be one relatively simple solution to help save Swifts from disappearing.

Nature writer and campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor hit the headlines this autumn (5th November) when she strolled naked from Hyde Park Corner to the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street to highlight the plight of Swifts. Her petition seeks the government to make "swift bricks compulsory in new housing to help red-listed birds" and I (Simon King) will - for one - be signing it.

Hannah delivered her RSPB-endorsed campaign entitled "The Feather Speech" unclothed and painted from neck to toe in feathers. Hannah asks for urgent action to give swifts a home when new houses are erected in Britain. "This action," she says "could also benefit other red-listed birds: House sparrows, House martins and starlings."

Hannah's petition needs 100,000 signatures to reach parliamentary debate and the deadline is 30th April 2023. "Don’t sign because I ask," she says, "Sign because swifts can’t. Sign because of #EveryBirdCounts."

The Feather Speech attracted the attention of Piers Morgan who said he'd help Hannah save the swift population and he encouraged his social media followers to sign her petition, which stands at 35,825 signatures (12th December 2022).

"The government's response is a cop-out," says Hannah - see https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/626737 "They're not being accountable." "Time is running out!"

Why are swifts in decline? BTO: "Modern building design and refurbishment of old buildings may have contributed to the decline by depriving Swifts of nest sites, but the complications in monitoring trends and nests (as described in the Status Summary) make it difficult to confirm and identify the likely main drivers of change."

Follow-up note: after my interview with Hannah, I connected with Action for Swifts and we're discussing a way to add circa seven swift boxes to our relocation project and to hand over more commercial space to nature as it makes sense to add these nesting sites to commercial buildings too. We hope we'll home a colony of Swifts soon...

So, back to my question: what would you do to help nature? How about signing the petition AND here's an additional one from me and Hannah - "Clean your bird feeders, please!"

Thanks for listening.

Simon King - Haith's - www.haiths.com

Show links:

Photo credit: Ruotong Zhou (4).

Sign the petition here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/626737

Watch The Feather Speach video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ft8nmG3OyO0

Hannah's website: https://hannahbournetaylor.com/

Buy Fledgling, Hannah's debut nature memoir: https://hannahbournetaylor.com/fledgling/

Invest in a Swift box: Visit www.actionforswifts.com