Swifts, Martins and High Fliers - The Garden Web of Life Workshop Series

Join us for the fourth of our Garden Web of Life workshop series - focusing on high fliers like Swifts and House Martins, and the high flying insects they eat..
We're thinking about our gardens in the context of a column of life extending vertically up into the sky, with what we grow on every surface supporting the abundance of flying insects that swifts, house martins and swallows feed on. If you don't have your own garden, come and learn how you can help on a local project nearby.

Learn: About supporting high fliers! Find out more about Swifts, House Martins and Swallows, how to identify them, the risks they're facing and how to support them. What you can grow in your garden to encourage an abundance of flying insect life, from native wildflowers to climbers and trees, growing on every available surface. Plus other habitats which support this insect life.  Find out about nesting behaviour, and how you can support with swift boxes and bricks, including practicalities like where to position, and advocate for these on all new housing.
We'll be joined by Nick Patel, a naturalist, birder and tour guide, with seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of our living world! He is passionate about helping to protect and restore our native biodiversity, and encouraging others to do the same.

Connect: Nick will then take us on a short walk around the local area to see what we can spot - hopefully some swifts and house martins, but also other local bird life, and brilliant examples of how to support them.

Plan: How you can add planting and habitat to your garden to support high fliers.  Bring a plan or aerial image of your garden and we can help.

Share: Tea and cake, plus wildlife sightings, gardening for wildlife tips/wins, and ways to advocate for wildlife beyond your patch.

We are asking for a donation to cover the costs of running this workshop, and have set a suggested amount which covers tutor fees, insurance, tea/coffee/cake and materials. We would however like our workshops to be accessible to all, so genuinely feel welcome to adjust this to what you can afford. Children do not need a ticket.
All welcome, children should be accompanies by an adult.
We will be working outdoors, under the shelter at the garden, so dress for the weather.
The space is accessible for wheelchairs. Please let us know if you have any accessibity requirements

Each month we will be looking at part of the web of life that calls our gardens home and how we can support this vital web by creating a haven for wildlife in our green spaces. Future workshops include bees, aphids, butterflies & moths, bats, hedgehogs, worms, winter migrants and foxes.

Supported by Alice Park Community Garden and The Co-op Community Fund