Here’s the latest video of our young swifts in Box 3. This time one of them is doing ‘press-ups’ in readiness for fledging, which we estimate should be around 30th July, so a little while to go yet. But look more carefully and you will see that there are only two youngsters in the nest now....
We don’t know what’s happened to the third one. Everything was fine last time we looked which was only a day or so ago. We’ve checked the gutters below and around the nest box, and also the ground and garden in general and there’s no sign at all. So we are completely baffled as it was very much alive and well before. It’s possible that it’s still in the box, in the corner underneath the camera but of course we’re unable to see without disturbing the other birds, so we’ll just have to wait and see if it does reappear.
The second video shows the parent bird coming in to feed and the absolute pandemonium in the box as the two youngsters compete for attention!
On a good note, the pair in Box 1 are well settled now, and laid another egg which will go to waste but at least they’re trying. And Box 6 has had prospectors this morning, with one taking up residence for a while so we are hopeful that maybe it will visit again with a partner. Apologies but I can't figure out how to get rid of the pink "tart's boudoir" effect in Box 6, but never mind, you can see that the visitor is having a good look around this very desireable home!
Sweet videos, and the second one....it looks as if the visitor is very happy! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Linda, thank you for visiting! Yes, our visitor did look like he/she was looking happy but unfortunately they didn't return to the box after that. Never mind, we'll keep trying!
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