Sunday 24 July 2022

All gone now

 The second youngster departed yesterday morning and the final one left today. One of the parents was in the box to roost last night with the third youngster, the other parent has probably already left so it’ll be interesting to see if anyone’s in tonight. So it looks like that’s it for the season as no other boxes have been looked at by prospectors. So a successful season even though only one box was occupied, but three young safely fledged, and neither adult got taken by a hobby!

Friday 22 July 2022

And then there were two....

 And then there were two....
One of our young swifts fledged this morning and it looked like another one might do as well as it was peeping out of the entrance whole looking very interested in the outside world. 

 

We expected it to be gone by the time we got back from our morning walk, but it was still there.

 Here’s a final video of all three together with one parent:

 


 And here’s a video of our remaining two youngsters:




Sunday 17 July 2022

Fitness training.

Our young swifts are nearly ready to go, it won’t be long now. Both parents are still present (hooray, not taken by a hobby yet!) and roosting in the box at night. So far there have been no takers for any of the other boxes. Here’s a video taken this morning of one of the youngsters doing some press-ups to get ready for it’s flight shortly. 




Friday 8 July 2022

Growing up fast!

Our young swifts in Box 3 are growing up fast. Here’s a video taken yesterday. You can see they're losing their fluffy chick feathers and starting to look grown up.

 


 Still no sign of any swifts investigating the other boxes.


 

Friday 24 June 2022

 A short video taken this morning of our three young swifts. They're all doing well, their eyes are not quite open yet. Still no other swifts visiting any of our other nestboxes.



Monday 20 June 2022

Young swifts doing well

 
Our swift chicks are all doing well so far, there are definitely three there. Their eyes are not yet open but it shouldn't be long now before they are. The parents are attending to them well too so we hope that they will all survive to adulthood. Here is a short video taken today:


 
So far no other swifts have been doing flypasts or entering any of the other boxes.

Wednesday 15 June 2022

New Swifts

 Hooray, this morning our swift eggs hatched. We've been able to get a short glimpse and have seen only two of the young when the adults have been doing their changeover but hopefully the third one is there as well. So all looking good so far, they seem to have got it just right this year, so here's hoping that one of the adults doens't get nobbled by a hobby.




Saturday 4 June 2022

 A brief update, we still have the pair in Box 3 sitting on three eggs. Sadly though we haven't had any  visitors to any of the other nestboxes. Our pair seem very much out on their own here on the edge of the village and so far we haven't had any flypasts of other swifts from the neighbourhood...if there are any! Hopefully we might get some interest from a second wave of swifts -  if the weather brightens up a bit... which seems equally unlikely....

Saturday 28 May 2022

A third egg.

28th May. We now have a third egg in Box 3. Incubation will start in serious now, so about 20 or so days will take us up to around the 17th June. Let's hope it all goes to plan!

Wednesday 25 May 2022

 Yesterday the pair in Box 3 laid a second egg.  We're now hoping that tomorrow they may lay a third!



Sunday 22 May 2022

We have an egg!

 Our resident pair are still in Box 3 and the good news is that this morning they laid an egg. Hooray, it looks like they are serious about it this year. Here’s hoping that there are a couple more eggs to come then they can start incubating. In this short video you may be able to catch a glimpse of the egg centre picture whilst the birds are shuffling about


…and we hope that unlike last year, the egg will actually stay in the nest and not get chucked out. We also hope that the hobbys keep away, the last thing we went is that one of the adults gets taken by one. Watch this space! 

Here is another video filmed shortly afterwards, one of the swifts had been out flying with two other swifts
and had just returned and here you can see the changeover and the egg in the middle of the nest.





Sunday 15 May 2022

At last our single swift in Box 3 now has a partner and they seem very happy and settled together, both roosting together at night.  So far, no other swifts have attempted to enter any of the remaining boxes. Here are a couple of videos of the pair in Box 3:

 



 

Friday 13 May 2022

 Our single swift is still roosting each evening and the usual ‘gang of three’ have been seen doing flypasts over the last couple of days but so far no other swift has entered Box 3. Lunchtime today, the Box 3 resident brought in some nesting material and can be seen in the video below sticking some of it down. Presumably this means that it does have a partner…somewhere! Apologies for the shape of the video today, must try to remember to do it in landscape.

 



Tuesday 10 May 2022

Home again!

Hooray! One of our swifts returned to Box 3 yesterday evening. It came as a total surprise as we haven’t seen any swifts around here at all so far, but yesterday afternoon whilst I was out in the garden a trio flew over, screaming as they went by. But as usual I thought that they were probably en-route to somewhere else. It seems though that last night’s arrival may have been one of the three. Long-term readers of this blog will know that our home swifts normally fly about in a ‘gang of three’ so hopefully that’s them all back now. We look forward to more occupants in our boxes!