Since 2013, our colleagues across The Wildlife Trusts have partnered with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) on our Wild About Gardens initiative – encouraging everyone with a garden to provide food and shelter for wildlife or to offer a safe space for wildlife to pass through. 90% of UK households have a garden - that's over 20 million gardens with a larger surface area than the 2300 nature reserves that Wildlife Trusts across the country manage. Even if you don't have a garden, you can do your bit to help our struggling wildlife - from window boxes to bee bricks or containers of wildflowers on a balcony.

This year, the focus of Wild About Gardens are our high-fliers - the house martins, swallows, swifts and sand martins that zoom through the air. These wonderful birds rarely touch the ground but are on their way to spend their spring and summer with us. Swifts and house martins, once familiar to so many of us, were recently added to the UK's Red List for birds, which means that they've suffered severe declines and require urgent action to help them. It is estimated, for example, that almost 60% of UK swifts have disappeared over the last 25 years.

Huge declines of insects, habitat loss and the impacts of climate change – with extreme weather affecting breeding cycles and migration – are the main challenges affecting migratory birds like these. There are things that almost all of us can do to help with the first two issues and, by changing some of our habits, we can also help with the longer-term impacts of climate change. 

• You've probably heard it before but one of the easiest things you can do to help wildlife, including our high-flying summer visitors, is be lazy! If you're lucky enough to have a garden, set aside a patch of grass to grow long - this will encourage insects in your garden - an important source of food for these amazing birds.
• If you've got a flower-border (or patio tubs or window boxes), you can plant this up with insect-friendly flowers.
• If you've got a bit more room, why not create a boggy garden patch that will not only support insects but will also provide mud for swallows and house martins to take to help with nest construction.
• If you've got a little less room, what about adding a house martin nest under your eaves or a swift box or brick if you're able to site it at least five metres above the ground?

We might be familiar with their screaming and spinning through the air but which one is which, where might you see them and what are they doing...

Swifts:

• Often heard before they are seen - listen for their distinctive screaming call as groups dart through the sky. Whilst they feed over wetlands (like our Upton Warren wetland reserve) and meadows, look out for 'screaming parties' over your town or village.
• Although they used to nest in caves and trees, swifts have adapted to make their homes in towns and cities but they require a big drop from their nest as they get airborne.
• They gather food in a “bolus” where they store flying insects that they catch on the wing. They can catch up to 20,000 insects in a day.
• Speedy! They can reach speeds over 65mph, making them the fastest recorded bird in level flight, and only land to raise their young.

Swallows

• Migrate, almost non-stop, to South Africa on a dangerous journey that can take up to six weeks.
• Look for them swooping in and out of barns, sheds and other enclosed areas. They're often found close to water and can be seen hunting for food over meadows and farmland.
• When looking for a mate, females will go for the male with the longest and most symmetric tail (or 'streamers') which is a sign of good health. They mate for life.

House martins

• These colonial species tend to nest in groups of around five nests.
• Like swallows, they build their nests from mud, using wet earth and grasses to create a home they can return to year after year. Allowing their nests to remain in place over winter gives them a headstart when they return the following spring.
• They're notoriously difficult to track throughout their migration process - there's only ever been one UK-ringed house martin recorded in Africa and that was back in 1984!

Sand martins

• Look along rivers, on wetlands and in quarries where they nest in colonies, digging burrows in sandy cliffs. Diglis Basin in Worcester, for example, has had a sand martin population for several years.
• In the last 50 years, populations have plummeted due to drought in Africa, where they spend the winter.