Fachhochschule Dortmund is already looking forward to winged visitors at the start of the 2023 summer semester: Before the winter break, Fachhochschule Dortmund had nesting aids for swifts installed at the Sonnenstraße location in collaboration with the Dortmund Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU DO).
The boxes on a building façade in the inner courtyard are intended to provide a home for the protected species during the breeding season in spring.
"Swifts don't have an easy time finding nesting sites," reports Sandra Bolesch from the UAS working group for social and ecological sustainability. "Trees are unsuitable and old buildings with façade niches are often no longer available. All the more reason to take to the skies and support the birds."
Sightings in the Kreuzviertel
Using a hydraulic work platform, two boxes from NABU Dortmund were first attached below a roof eave. "As swifts are colony breeders and several have already been sighted in the Kreuzviertel district, we can assume that the news will spread quickly," says Sandra Bolesch optimistically. "We'll know more by summer 2023 at the latest."
The University of Applied Sciences has been working for some time to make its Sonnenstraße location more natural and sustainable. In recent months, for example, nesting boxes for tits and bat boxes have been installed. In addition to NABU Dortmund, the Fachhochschule Dortmund's CSR Office(Opens in a new tab) , which is responsible for corporate social responsibility, is also involved.