An update for the past week.

 

I have been away for a week so haven’t been able to update, so what follows is a brief update of what’s been going on this last week. Up till now, things have been fairly ‘normal’ and what we would have expected, but then some odd changes occurred...

12^th June Box 6 laid an egg but it was outside the nest cup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so the box was opened whilst they were out to find a second egg out of camera view. Both were put back into the nest (this is the good thing about having an opening door at one end of the box) and the parents came back that evening, with one on the nest and the other not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13^th June This morning, both the eggs in Box 6 were still in the nest and the parent birds out briefly but coming back to incubate apparently.

Box 1 laid a 3^rd egg but only one of the parents came back to roost overnight.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14^th June In Box 1 the now three eggs were visible in the nest but no parents were in all day long until only one came back to roost that evening - we wonder whether the remaining adult has lost it’s partner somehow.

In Box 6 the adults were also out most of the day with only one coming back to incubate at lunchtime, and the second returning that evening.

15^th June In Box 1 only one egg was now visible...what’s happened to the other two? There were no adults in the box all day and none returning to roost that night. It looks like they’ve given up….

In Box 6, two eggs are still in the nest, with one bird apparently incubating and the second returning onto the nest and staying overnight. 

16^th June In Box 1 only one adult came back to the nest briefly at lunchtime, with two on the nest overnight...has Box one parent found a new partner?

In Box 6 one adult was on the nest except for a brief outing in the afternoon, with two adults on the nest overnight.

17^th June In Box 1, two adults were in and out at various times of the day.

In Box 6, one adult was on the nest most of the day, and both adults came in to roost at night.

So, it looks like Box 1 have more or less given up incubating seriously which is a great shame as the young were due to hatch around the 20th June - on the other hand, Box 6 who we thought were first year birds who wouldn’t raise any young this year seem to be doing so - so far that is!

Here is a video taken this morning (18^th July) of the parent on the nest in Box 6, you can see it sticking down feathers around the edge of the nest.

  

On the brighter side, even if we don’t get any young this year at least we still have two pairs resident here!

Nest building

The pair in Box 1 have now started incubating on just the two eggs, so we expect to see the young swifts hatching any time from around the 20th June.

Meanwhile, the new pair in Box 6 continue to bring in feathers and in the photo below you can see the start of a circular nest cup in the top right hand corner of the box. They bring in feathers and stick them down with saliva, I hope to get a video of this at some stage.

 

A new pair arrives

 Yesterday evening a newcomer entered Box 6 and spent a while in there exploring, but later left. 

Then this morning it brought its partner along to have a look and it seems to approve, so we have high hopes of this new pair taking up residence. 

 

The other news is that we have another egg in Box 1, so hopefully one more to go!
 

 

 

 

Our first egg.

We have our first egg at last! Laid this morning n Box 1. We hope that they will continue to lay for the next couple of days, hopefully we shall have three and then they can start brooding.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The nest cup is quite deep this time as they have brought in extra feathers so hopefully the egg will remain in the nest and not roll out elsewhere! Box 3 have still not returned so we think they are not going to do so now. 

No-one else has arrived.

Well, our two swifts in Box 1 are continuing to roost  nightly, and bring feathers in during the day so we hope that we may get our first egg shortly.

Meanwhile, there has been no sign of our long-term pair from Box 3 so it looks like they're not going to return, which is very sad after the several years that they've been with us. We can only hope that we'll get a new pair in the second wave of arrivals...if that happens... who knows these days? Box 1 have been doing their usual screaming flypasts regularly, quite often with another pair in tow, so four of them and maybe these extra two will take up residence at some stage. 

Our second swift has arrived.

Our second swift arrived yesterday afternoon and has now settled in nicely, with both roosting in Box 1 overnight. Swift number one went out briefly and collected a new feather to add to the ever-growing pile. Here they are last night:

 and here they are this morning before they went out for the day:

We are now awaiting the arrival of our long-term pair from Box 3, no sign of them yet but hopefully they will arrive over the next couple of days.

Our first one arrived home!

Our first swift arrived home to Box 1 yesterday evening, hooray! About a week or so late this time but it's a start and we are now awaiting the arrival of its partner, along with the pair from Box 3. Here's a short video taken this morning, huddled up in its feather duvet -  it's obviously waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before it ventures out again....