Screams & Streams
The link between swifts and rivers
Screams and Streams was a pilot community-led action research project which asked the question: Is there a clear relationship between river health and common swift survival? It ran from April to September 2025.
Over the last 30 years populations of nesting common swifts have declined by 76% in Wales. As aerial insectivores, swifts rely on abundant flying and airborne insects to survive and successfully rear their chicks; rivers are a key habitat for many emergent aerial insects, and must be in good health to support a diverse range and abundance. By surveying swift populations and river health across the Dyfi Biosphere a baseline dataset can be established to monitor change over time.
The research group
The research was carried out by two community groups: Lab Dŵr Dyffryn Dyfi and the Dyfi Biosphere Swifts Project in partnership with Biosffer Dyfi and funded by Cymru Wledig LPIP (Local Policy Innovation Partnerships) Rural Wales. Close partnership with New Dovey Fisheries Association was also a key factor for this projects success.
Lab Dŵr Dyffryn Dyfi volunteers sampled water every two weeks along the river from Llanymawddwy near its source to Borth, testing for temperature, pH, nitrates and other chemical and physical characteristics, as well as surveying invertebrate life.
Volunteers from the Dyfi Biosphere Swift Project surveyed swift breeding populations at each site, looking for nesting activity and 'screaming parties', also endeavouring to monitor feeding behaviour.
The Screams & Streams project report
Part of the Screams & Streams project goal was to produce an accessible report out of the baseline data that was collected over the summer of 2025.
This report is publicly available for the community that enabled its creation, researchers and anyone else that the data may be useful or insightful to.
The report can be downloaded below, and to the right are individual downloads for each of the datasets collected, which will form a starting point for ongoing swift and river surveying.
Download the report data
Or
We still need your help!
This was a citizen science project, and ongoing help from the community is vital to its legacy and success. Lab Dŵr Dyffryn Dyfi and the Dyfi Biosphere Swift Project still need people to help monitor rivers and swifts throughout the Dyfi catchment year on year to establish an ongoing record of both.
For more details contact us via the website contact form.
Screams and Streams was part of the Cymru Wledig Local Policy and Innovation Partnership Rural Wales in which Aberystwyth University is a partner. It aims to support policy making that benefits rural communities, through engaging citizens in discussion and activities.
Watch this short video of locally nesting swifts in Machynlleth in 2025.