Saturday 24 June 2017

Our swiftlets have hatched!

Apologies for the short break in transmission, I've been sweltering away in sunny Portland for the last week. Before I left we had a pair of swifts in box 1, a pair with three eggs in box 2, a pair in box 3 and a starling family in box 4. But the good news today is that the swift eggs in box 2 hatched earlier this week and the swiftlets are doing well. We were able to see that there are actually three in there this morning and here is a short video of the parents feeding:



The starlings in box 4 raised four young and they fledged whilst I was away.  Here is one of the young being fed
before they fledged:



















The box has now been cleared out and is ready and waiting for some swifts to find it – unfortunately apart from our own ones there doesn't seem to be much activity at all locally, so the rest of the boxes may remain untouched.
The occupants of swift boxes 1 and 3 are still bringing in feathers for their nests but neither has laid any eggs yet....we live in hope!

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