>Why are you trying to place blame, when it's a case of luck.
Here, from 50' up to 2000' there are swifts all over the place, collecting insects to feed their young. Please can your 'council' advise me at what speeds and heights I should be flying, in order to place luck on my side and avoid a similar fate happening to me as WAATP's, Thanks.<
I'm not trying to place blame, it's just that I was surprised a police helicopter was at 400 ft agl 3 miles out from base returning from a job when usual advice is NOT to do so for a number of reasons. If a pilot on my unit had put himself in this situation for no good reason then he would have been given a word in his ear, both for reasons of noise abatement and considerations of unneccesarily mixing it with low level military jets that transitted our "patch", in addition to the increased risk of a birdstrike. If local ATC procedures require this type of join, as I was politely informed, I was only putting forward the suggestion that those procedures perhaps ought to be reviewed, especially in view of this fairly serious low level birdstrike which could have had more serious, even tragic, consequences.
Most birdstrikes occur below 1000 ft, not my opinion but FACT. I could direct interested parties to some statistics if you like.
Birdstrike avoidance is NOT a case of luck - I'm surprised a professional pilot made that statement!
The advice I'd give on trying to avoid swifts is - you won't; they occur in all height bands because they feed solely on insects which fly at varying heights, mainly dependent on the weather conditions. However, they will avoid you like the plague. They have potential natural airborne predators, they will see a helicopter as such and are very well equipped to get out of your way. In any event, they are only 6.5" long and weigh but a few ounces so it's almost certain that no aircraft damage will result from a collision with one. I can't recall a birdstrike report involving a swift. House martins or swallows yes (they aren't so agile, I've had birdstrikes with them myself) but they are even smaller still.
A Buzzard, on the other hand, being up to 24" in length, is likely to weigh in at up to a kilo, more if it carrying a rabbit! It has NO airborne predators and is territorial. It therefore poses a serious flight safety hazard. It has no reason to keep out of the way of a helicopter, so it might not do so. This one didn't.
Glad they are all OK.