Two new chicks today

At last we have managed to watch and film a changeover of the sitting swifts in box 3 today and I'm happy to report that we now have two more chicks. It's been difficult to spot what's been going on in the nest so far, as one of the parents has been constantly on the nest since the eggs were laid. Here is the changeover, in which you might get a glimpse of the chicks:

and here is another one, showing the returned parent bird feeding the two youngsters:

Here is a brief video of the two chicks on their own - the parent is just sitting by the entrance watching flypasts:

Things are much the same otherwise, we still have two adults and three youngsters in box 2 and they are showing an interest in the outside world. I haven't seen any wing excercises yet though. Here they are in the nest with the two parents keeping guard at the entrance against any prospectors:

 

Box 1 continue to roost each night but tend to disappear from dawn to dusk. One of their abandoned eggs has been spotted at the side of the box.  There have been several flypasts this morning, at one stage there were 8 flying around whilst two adults were still in the boxes and box 5 has again been visited several times although there is still nobody roosting yet. So, not long to go until the swifts start to think about returning to Africa. We should keep the box 3 ones until around the middle of August though when the young fledge, all being well.  Unfortunately the swift season is all too short!

Eyes open in box 2

I'm pleased to report today that the three youngsters in box 2 have their eyes open now and are beginning to move about the box, or at least one of them is, since only two can actually fit in the nest now! Here they are, showing a passing interest in the small beetle that is wandering about the floor of the box:

Box 3 are still incubating their two eggs, here is a changeover with the sitter fixing some more feathers on the nest:

Box 1 seem to have mislaid their eggs yet again, one being found on the roof tiles below the box so we don't think much is going to happen there this year. Never mind, it's practise for next year, hopefully they'll get it right then!

We've been away for a couple of days so we don't yet know what the situation is with the pair that were prospecting in box 5, one has been seen in there today but tonight will tell whether they are settled and roosting at night. There have been a lot of fly-pasts today at least, so hopefully I shall have good news next time.

Box 1 lay an egg

At last, the pair in box 1 laid an egg this morning. Later on the box was checked again, only to find the egg was out of the nest:

So whilst the birds were out it was placed back in the nest:

Luckily the boxes are all sited next to an upstairs window so we can reach into the boxes without resorting to a ladder every time. Here's the owner sitting on it again whilst adding feathers to the nest, and hopefully the egg will stay where it should be.

Decoy Swift has not had to come out today, (it's been 'perched' by the entrance to box 6 for the last two afternoons) because the good news is that a new pair seem to be interested in box 5 now. We don't know if it was because of Decoy Swift or not but we hope they will stay to roost this evening. Here are two short videos of the interested parties inspecting the box, firstly the finder, and then it brought a mate along to view as well:

 Here's hoping they will move into this very desirable residence permanently!

Another egg!

Not much has changed over the last couple of days, other than that a pair of starlings started roosting in box 6 and then started building a nest. Before they could get too far we removed the nesting material whilst they were out and put a temporary baffle on the entrance to keep them out until they had moved on elsewhere.

The baffle is now off again and hopefully some more swifts will have a look at it, and also box 5 which has had no interest so far. The other starling is still in box 4, we think it has four eggs. The good news today is that whilst box 2 were out we were able to see that they now have three eggs in their nest.

So that's five eggs that we know about - of course box 3 could also have three eggs but we've been unable to see them as they are constantly being incubated.
Box 1 have made no attempt to build a nest, although they are roosting every night and seem settled, so we gave them a helping hand -  some feathers stuck onto a sheet of thin plywood and slipped it into their box whilst they were out for the day. Hoping this might encourage them to get moving themselves!

A punch-up in box 4

We fixed the wonky camera in box 4 after the starling dislodged it yesterday, (not while the starling was in there I hasten to add), but it didn't return again until this morning, when at 7.30 am there was an almighty punch-up between it and another starling inside the box. This went on for just under half an hour and it was extremely vicious, but unfortunately the video I took didn't come out too well. I'm not sure any swifts could compete with this but maybe I'm wrong! Meanwhile, the pair in box 2 roosted overnight, with the single again in box 3. Today there have been several fly pasts, with a single bird entering box 5 with a feather, but up to the time of writing it has not visited again. Maybe it'll come in to roost this evening.