Giving swifts a holiday home with the RSPB and Swift Holiday Homes and Lodges
We’re on a mission to protect swifts! The endangered birds will be migrating from Africa, between April and May, to the UK for the summer. They’re in desperate need of nesting places, so we've partnered up with the RSPB and Swift Holiday Homes and Lodges to provide them.
The lack of nesting sites (historically in the nooks and crannies of old buildings) is a contributing factor to the decline in numbers and something we can change. Swift Holiday Homes and Lodges are donating handmade swift nest boxes, which we are placing around some of our parks – Fallbarrow Holiday Park, Coopers Beach Holiday Park and St. Minver Holiday Park.
From here we hope to encourage the birds, who return to the same nesting site year after year, to return to their very own holiday home.
Swift fun facts
Facts as speedy as the birds they're about!
- Swifts feed almost exclusively on flying insects and airborne spiders.
- As the bird is hunting, insects are collected in the back of the throat in a special food pouch and bound together with saliva into a ball called a bolus, which is either eaten or taken to the nest for the chicks. These food balls can contain thousands of insects.
- Swifts drink by catching raindrops in the air, or by flying low over water, skimming a mouthful from the surface.
- They arrive in the UK in the last week of April or early May and stay only long enough to breed. Autumn migration begins in late July or early August. The onset of the migration is believed to be triggered by the lack of insects high in the air.
- At two to three weeks of age the young swifts start to move about the nesting chamber and exercise their wings by performing 'press-ups' on their wing tips.
How we're supporting the RSPB
We're supporting the RSPB by sponsoring the restoration of 20 square meters of Scottish rainforest on each owner's behalf*, to help the RSPB's efforts to conserve this vital natural habitat. Find out more about the challenges faced by Scotland's rainforests below.
Alongside this, we will be gifting every new holiday home owner a free set of RSPB binoculars, worth £80*.
Discover Scotland's Rainforest
Protecting Scottish Rainforest
The Scottish Rainforest is a unique habitat of ancient and native woodlands, open glades, boulders, crags, ravines and river gorges dappled by sunlight, dripping with moisture and garlanded with rare lichens, mosses, liverworts, fungi and other plants - some found nowhere else in the world.
Video produced in partnership with the Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest, a voluntary partership of organisations committed to protecting Scotland's rainforest.
This vital habitat is threatened and only 30,000 hectares of rainforest remain in Scotland. It faces threats from over-grazing, meaning that young saplings struggle to grow and cannot continue the natural regeneration process of the rainforest. It is also threatened by invasive non-native species, specifically rhododendron. This plant is a fast grower and crowds out other plants, meaning the diversity of the rainforest is dwindling as one species takes over.
The RSPB is tackling these issues by installing deer fencing to allow saplings the chance to grow stronger, and by removing rhododendron plants to allow the native plant species to thrive. If this work is not done now, there is a real chance there will be no Scottish rainforest left in 100 years. By restoring the rainforest Parkdean Resorts will be helping to ensure it can continue to thrive and be an oasis for wildlife, and that the trees continue to grow and absorb carbon.
The money donated by Parkdean Resorts on behalf of each new owner will mean the RSPB can restore 20 square metres of Scottish Rainforest. Together across 2021, this could mean that we can restore an area of rainforest equivalent to the size of 9 rugby pitches!
Enquire About Ownership Today
Make Parkdean Resorts the natural choice. To become an owner with Parkdean Resorts and benefit from our fantastic offer with the RSPB, as well as conserve our natural world and keep bringing magical moments to life, simply enquire using the form below and our friendly team will be in touch. Whether you want to order a brochure to browse or arrange a visit to park to see our caravans and lodges in person, take your first step towards holiday home ownership today.
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RSPB Offer Terms & Conditions
*See below for full offer terms and conditions.
- The RSPB Family Membership and a payment to the RSPB Scottish Rainforest restoration project is provided to all customers who purchase a holiday home at any Parkdean Resorts Holiday Park between the dates of 1 May 2021 and 1 May 2022.
- You will receive an application form to enable you to activate your 12 month RSPB Gift Family Membership, and Parkdean Resorts will make a payment of £5 to the RSPB Scottish Rainforest restoration project. You must activate your RSPB Family Membership by completing the application form and sending it to the address stipulated on the form by 31 May 2022.
- If the RSPB Gift Family Membership is not activated by 31 May 2022 the offer will have expired and there shall be no refund or exchange available in these circumstances.
- The start date for this offer is 1 May 2021
- The closing date for this offer is 1 May 2022
- This offer is available to customers purchasing a holiday home and is not available in conjunction with other offers.
- This offer is non-exchangeable, non-transferable and no cash or voucher alternative is offered.
- The application form provided to activate the RSPB Gift Family Membership shall have no cash value and shall not be sold or otherwise gifted or used by any person other than the customer purchasing the holiday home.
- In the event you cancel your purchase of the holiday home within 30 days you shall not be entitled to the RSPB Gift Family Membership and any application form submitted will be void.
- Once the RSPB Gift Family Membership has been activated the Membership shall be subject to the RSPB terms and conditions as notified to you by the RSPB.
- Customers shall be entitled to one RSPB Gift Family Membership only during the period set out in terms 5 and 6 above.
- Customers are deemed to have accepted and agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions on completion of the sale. This sale is subject to Parkdean Resorts’ usual terms and conditions which will be provided on request.
- Parkdean Resorts reserves the right to hold void, cancel, suspend or amend the promotion where it becomes necessary to do so.
- Insofar as is permitted by law, Parkdean Resorts, its agents or distributors will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate the customer or accept liability for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking up the offer items except where it is caused by the negligence of Parkdean Resorts, its agents or distributors or that of their employees. Your statutory rights are not affected.
- This offer will be governed by English law and customers submit to the jurisdiction of the English courts.
- Parkdean Resorts is the trading name of Parkdean Resorts UK Limited of Second Floor, Gosforth Business Park, One Gosforth Park Way, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 8ET.
Additional Terms & Conditions from RSPB
One RSPB Gift Family Membership shall be provided with each holiday caravan or lodge sold by Parkdean Resorts Limited between the dates of 1st May 2022 up to and including 30th April 2023 and the value of this gift membership, of £80, and a payment of £5 for the Scottish Rainforest restoration project, will be paid to the RSPB, a registered charity in England and Wales, number 207076, and in Scotland, number SC037654.