Friday 31 May 2019

Box 1 has a partner!

Whoopee, at last box 1 single now has a partner! She (presumably) has had a visitor over the last couple of days, but as yet he has not been allowed entry into the box, but this morning, after hearing a lot of screaming we turned on the monitor to find that at last a partner had been allowed into the box. So hopefully we now have two pairs in residence. Here are box 1 pair getting to know each other:



Box 3 pair are still sitting on their three eggs and so far none of them have fallen out of the nest again. We reckon the young will hatch around the 13/14th June.

Sunday 26 May 2019

Houston, we have a problem!


As I thought, earlier this morning, one of the swifts in box 3 laid a third egg. But here lies the problem:



As you can see, the third egg is out of the nest. But all is not lost, as one of the advantages of having nest boxes next to opening windows, and the nest boxes themselves having opening side doors, is that you can wait until the both birds vacate. They did so shortly after this video and we were able to whizz upstairs and replace the third egg in the nest concave. Hopefully it'll stay there this time - if not we'll have to do it all again!

The third egg now replaced in the nest:





No change

Still no change in the swift situation here, we still have the pair on eggs in box 3, and the single in box 1 has yet to find a partner.

 This morning, one of the pair in box 3, presumably the male, came in with more feathers for the nest:





We were expecting the normal morning changeover, but the partner on the nest won't budge so he climbs right over her and starts putting the feathers at the back. She lends a bit of help at this stage, but still won't budge:



in the end he gives up, leaving her on the nest. You can just get a glimpse of the two eggs in this video:


Finally, he leaves the box again. The bird on the nest appears to be straining a bit. Is it about to lay another egg and is this why it didn't want to move off the nest?



Hopefully more news later.











Friday 24 May 2019

Eggs at last!

Having just watched the morning changeover on the nest camera, we are happy to confirm that the pair in box 3 are now incubating two eggs.




















Box 1 single continues to be on it’s own so far, but we’re hoping that it will now find a mate in the second wave of swifts to arrive.

9.30 am and box 3 pair have just gone out for a feed, leaving the two eggs. Hopefully this means that a further egg is due before incubation starts in earnest.

Thursday 16 May 2019

As of this morning we still only have the three swifts in residence. Box 3 pair are spending a lot of time in the box, (but have just gone out as I write!) and box 1 single comes and goes, but all three are roosting at night. It is obvious that whatever partner that box 1 had went missing so we're very much hoping that it will bring in a new partner very shortly.

 All gone out for the day!




















Monday 13 May 2019

One more back

Last night, box 2 swift was joined by it's partner, so we now have three swifts in residence. Here are all three at roost last night:



















 
Still waiting for box 1's partner to turn up.

Sunday 12 May 2019

I'm happy to report that this morning one of box 3 pair returned and spent some time in the box preening and re-arranging the nesting material.

 

We're hoping that we'll have both box 1 and box 3 occupied by at least one of each pair tonight - hopefully more news tomorrow!

Saturday 11 May 2019

They're back!

Welcome back readers, I'm happy to say that Cley Swifts is now live again with the arrival home of our first swift yesterday evening, into box 1, just one day late from last year.
















The newly-sized entrance holes that we made last year (exactly 65mm x 28mm) seem to have worked this year - so far we've had no invasions of starlings or sparrows in any of the boxes so hopefully we may get some other swift takers this year. We're now eagerly awaiting the arrival of box 1's partner (always a bit of a worry - has anything happened to it since we last saw it?) and hopefully the arrival of box 3 pair shortly.