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.

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!

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.

On Sunday our two young swifts finally left, one in the morning and one late afternoon, leaving just the adult bird to roost Sunday night. The adult bird hasn't returned since, so this is it for this year. Not quite as successful as last year, having reared just five youngsters this year but hopefully this is just a minor blip and we'll be back on track next year. So here's to next year folks, we shall return in the Spring, round about the beginning of May. Thanks for visiting!

We still have a full house in box 1, with the two youngsters and the one parent still feeding them. They are a bit more lively now, we haven't seen them sitting in the entrance peering out yet, but it shouldn't be long now before they are away. Here they are yesterday, having a good preening session:

The rest of the time they are just resting in the corner of the box. Although the box is in the shade all day I think they must still be feeling the heat a bit and are not doing much in the way of wing excercises yet.

 Yesterday the final youngster fledged from box 3 and the adults didn't return to roost last night. So that's our box 3 all finished with for the year. Sad to see them go, but happy that they all survived and hopefully will return next year. The single adult is still feeding the two youngsters in box 1 but it won't be long before they are away too!

Yesterday two of the youngsters from box 3 left. Must have been some time late morning as they were there first thing, peering out of their doorway as usual. So last night there was just one young left in the box to roost with one parent bird. Box 1 are still all present, it will probably be around a week or so before the young are ready to leave. Here is the one remaining swiftlet in box 3 this morning:

 And here are the two youngsters in box 1 this morning: