The following is an extract from our nature newsletter Wild Wild Life. Sign up to receive it for free in your inbox every month.
The bird breeding season is well underway here in the UK now, including inside my house. A brood of starlings is being raised in our loft, and as the days have gone by, tiny squeals have become cheerfully loud squawks. I’m coming towards the end of my maternity leave, so the wellbeing of our avian lodgers has automatically been added to my maternal mental load – every morning and evening I find myself checking whether I’ve heard them recently and that they sound okay.
You may think it eccentric to be pleased to have wild animals in your home and that I should have got them removed right away. But it’s illegal to remove or damage an active nest of wild birds in the UK. The two species most likely to live in your home in this country are starlings and house sparrows, which are both on the UK’s bird Red List. In fact, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds asks people to “please allow [birds] access to nest in your roof”, as these can be vital refuges for them.
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Our house is one of a minority in our area whose loft/attic hasn’t been converted, which got me thinking about the impact of current house building and home renovation trends on wildlife. As well as there being a mania for extending our homes in every possible direction, houses are becoming increasingly sealed up – which is a good thing for energy efficiency, but has also removed valuable habitat at a time of biodiversity crisis. It is possible for modern homes to safely host wildlife, though, if only property developers will take note.
One great example is swift bricks. Swifts have just arrived back in the UK, and will spend only a few months breeding here before flying thousands of miles back to Africa. They particularly like to nest in roofs, and they return to the same site every year. But small cracks and crevices to nest in are becoming increasingly hard to find. UK swift numbers have more than halved since the mid-1990s, and these birds are on the Red List alongside starlings and sparrows.
Thankfully, swift bricks – which have little holes that swifts can nest in – seem to be becoming popular. These can be built into the wall of a new house or loft extension and are self-contained, so the birds don’t get into the house itself. Swifts are especially clean birds too, so they don’t make a mess. Demand for these bricks is reportedly rising, and there have been (so far, unsuccessful) calls for the UK government to make them mandatory in all new buildings.
Swifts are much-loved, but what about animals that aren’t so feted? I’ve always struggled to understand why so many people dislike bats, especially in the UK, where rabies hardly ever occurs. Watching bats swoop around after mosquitoes is my ideal way to spend a summer’s evening. But if you’re concerned about bats in your attic, there are a few things you need to be aware of. The first is that bats hardly ever come into contact with humans – in addition to being nocturnal, they roost in areas that are quiet, dark and undisturbed, so they’re unlikely to venture out into your living room.
Second, you should know your local legal situation – in the UK, all bats and roosts are protected and you cannot remove or rehome them. You can’t even block up a summer roost during the winter months when it is empty, as bats tend to return each summer. In the US, laws vary by state and species, and rabies is more of a concern – but not as much as you might think. To avoid it, Bat Conservation International recommends that you never touch a wild animal with your bare hands.
Nevertheless, there’s an inescapable ickiness about knowing there are wild animals in your building. I think on some level this must be primal – we want to keep our living space as controlled and clean as possible. But I suggest that part of the blame must go to pest control companies. Any time I’ve tried to look up advice online about any suspected animals in our home, I’ve been met with vast numbers of pest control websites filled with alarming warnings about potential damage and disease. While I’m certainly not encouraging you to share your home with rats or squirrels, I do hope we can find more solutions like swift bricks to compensate for all the dark, drafty lofts that have been lost.
