See the main page for notes, photos, and diaries for other years.
The numbered nestboxes can be seen on this photo.
2015-August-29 Young swift looking out from nestbox #2 yesterday.
The single adult swift continued with a few feeding visits each day, and returning to the box at night. Last night, 2015 August 28th, at 8.16pm, by which time it was getting dark, the last young swift finally left. The video camera showed it getting about half-way across the garden, but after that the picture wasn't good enough to see, due to the poor light. There is no reason to suppose that it didn't get away successfully - I didn't find it on the ground anywhere.
Just 4 minutes later, the adult approached the nestbox, but didn't manage to enter. Normally they'd circle round for another attempt, but a few seconds later, it just bulleted past without slowing down. Was it too dark for it, or did it somehow know that the young one had gone?
This afternoon, the adult swift visited the nest for a few minutes, then was gone, so that's the end for my swift season 2015.
2015-August-26 Only one adult has been returning to nestbox #2 for the night for 3 nights now. And the weather has been poor, with lots of rain. Yesterday, there was only one feeding visit in the middle of the day, between the adult leaving in the morning, and returning at night.
This morning, again with lots of rain around, the adult left at 8.47am, and one of the young ones left at 8.50am. I got a video from the camera outside the nestbox, so I'm confident that it got away avoiding obstacles in the garden. As usual, young ones flap a lot more in their first flight than adults.
I took another look inside the nestbox, and indeed there's one young swift left. It looks alert and ready to go. Around mid-day, the adult returned and stayed for just over an hour (much longer than usual, but it's still raining). It's probably more luck than judgement that two weeks ago, on looking in this nestbox for the first time, I wrote that the young probably had a couple more weeks to go to fledging.
2015-August-23 As far as I know, the only pair of swifts still here are those in nestbox #2, with two chicks. I've counted feeding visits by the adults over the last few days (2015 August 17 to 2015 August 22), captured by the camera outside the box. On days with reasonable weather, there were between 18 and 22 visits from about 7am to 8.30pm. On one day when it rained almost continuously, there were only 5 visits, with the adults staying away between 8.20am and 5.50pm.
This evening, only one adult returned to the nestbox for the night, rather than 2 every night until now.
2015-August-12 I've been placing a video camera outside some of the swift nest spaces, and recording adult birds coming and going. There is a nest with two young swifts in box #2 (I took a quick look while fixing the camera) - I would say from the size that they might still have a couple of weeks to go before fledging. And I hear the sounds of young in soffit space #w2r. I don't think the birds are still in soffit-space #w1r - the camera didn't record anything over a day.
So best guess of numbers for this year is 6 pairs raising young - 4 in nest boxes, and 2 in holes in the soffit.
2015-August-6 The last adult swift in nestbox #1 didn't return any more after leaving on the morning of 2015 August 3, with the last young one having left the evening before.
With nothing now on the cameras inside nestboxes, attention switches to remaining swifts in other spaces. They are still coming and going from box #2 and soffit space #w1r, with 'chattering' of young coming from one or both of these places (they are quite close together, so difficult to tell). Also fresh droppings on the window-sill below #w1r. Swifts still come and go from soffit-space #w2r sometimes, and there's a dropping on the sill below that too - I thought they'd gone from here a while ago, so who knows. I've not seen any recent activity at box #5, where young were looking out around 2 weeks ago, so I think they have left from there.
2015-August-2 The last young swift still hasn't left from nestbox #1. Last night was the first night that the adult swifts didn't return to nestbox #4.
Later: At last, it's gone! The final young swift from nestbox #1 left at 9.09pm. I saw it go while watching from the garden. It was last fed by an adult at 8.49pm, and a single adult returned at 9.10pm and stayed overnight.
2015-July-31 The second young swift (of 3) fledged from nestbox #1 this morning. Adult pairs are still returning each night to the 2 camera boxes, and I can hear young swifts 'chattering' in at least one or two other spaces.
2015-July-29 This afternoon, the first young swift (of 3) fledged from nestbox #1, and I captured video of it leaving from outside. In the evening, between 9pm and 9.30pm, swifts returned to at least 6 nest-spaces.
2015-July-28 Today, I disturbed a sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) on the lawn. It flew off, leaving what I initially through was a blackbird, but it was a swift. Still very much alive, and clinging on to the grass with its claws - perhaps this saved it from being carried off. I put it in a box for a short while, to recover if needed. I couldn't see anything wrong with it, so I took it outside, and it flew off. This was an adult swift, probably caught as it approached the nestboxes. Later on, I saw a female sparrowhawk perched on next door's house, no doubt watching for another incoming swift. Dick Newell posted a video in 2012 showing a sparrowhawk attempting (and failing) to drag a swift back out of its nestbox. I would think that the occasions when the swift fails to enter and has to circle round again would give the sparrowhawk more chance.
2015-July-25 The 3 young swifts in nestbox #4 left between the 2015 July 21st and 23rd, but the adults are still returning to the box - they both returned very wet in the afternoon yesterday, as there was lengthy and widespread heavy rain.
The 3 young in nestbox #1 are still there. Their egg-laying and hatching were about 3 days later than those in nestbox #4.
The swifts in soffit-hole #w2r seem to have gone - hopefully there were some young. I haven't seen them for a few days, or heard to characteristic noise as they enter the hole (I think the wood acts as a sounding board).
There are still swifts in nestboxes #2 and #5, and soffit-hole #w1r. There are at least two young looking out of the hole in #5.
2015-July-9 Now past the halfway point in the 6-week development of young swifts. The 3 young ones in each of the two camera nestboxes appear to be doing well. As usual, it's difficult to tell where else swifts are nesting. Box #5 is fairly certain, with birds entering regularly, and also the soffit-holes at top right of each window (#w1r and #w2r).
2015-June-20 The 3 chicks in each of the two nestboxes appear to be doing well. It's noticeable that in nestbox #1, there's normally an adult present with the chicks, but in nestbox #4, the chicks are very often alone during daylight. I've not seen chicks left alone so much in previous years, but given that they seem to be developing well, I suppose the adults might as well be out collecting food. I saw some wing-flapping exercise from one of the chicks in nestbox #4 today, and they are more developed than the nestbox #1 chicks, with 8-9 days since hatching, as opposed to 5-6 days.
2015-June-15 The 3 eggs in nestbox #1 hatched today (or possibly yesterday).
2015-June-12 Saw on the video today that there are now 3 chicks in nestbox #4, and looking back at recordings, I spotted at least one last night, so they all might have hatched yesterday. There were still 3 eggs in nestbox #1 this afternoon, so look out for those hatching today or tomorrow.
2015-June-1 The 3 eggs in each of the camera nestboxes are still present. It's not often that I catch sight of them on the video, as one of the swifts is normally sitting on them. Twice I've heard what seemed to be a fight going on in the nest-space in the soffit at top-right of one of the windows (#w2r). where swifts bred last year. The first time, the loser (I assume) ended up dangling in space with the other bird hanging onto its wing with a claw - eventually it got away. Yesterday I found a broken egg on the window-ledge below this space - it looked like it had been there a few days, so I don't know what'sgoing on there. A pair is regularly entering the equivalent space at top-right of the other window (#w1r), still seeming to come and go together, so likely they have no eggs yet. This space is distinctive for having two entrances - they usually enter by one and leave by the other.
2015-May-26 A third egg was laid in box #1 this morning. So that's 3 eggs in each of my nests on camera, and of course I don't know what's happening in the other nest-spaces. Look out for eggs hatching from 2015 June 10th onwards.
2015-May-24 This morning, a second egg was laid in box #1, and a third egg in box #4. The pair in box #1 don't yet seem to be incubating their eggs continuously, so perhaps there will be a third there too?
2015-May-23 A second egg was laid in box #4 on 2015 May 21st (two days after the first). The first egg was laid in box #1 on 2015 May 22nd.
2015-May-19 First egg laid in box #4 today. In my 3 years with cameras, this is the earliest I've had an egg, but only by 3 days. I've seen swifts entering 5 boxes, two spaces above the windows, and maybe the usual space under the roof slates.
2015-May-10 A 2nd swift arrived back in box #4 at 9.01am. Initially the result looked more like a fight, and one of them left again, but around 30 minutes later, two birds entered one after another, and acted more 'friendly' to each other.
2015-May-8 A 2nd swift arrived back in box #1 at 2:22pm, and both birds stayed overnight.
2015-May-6 Caught on the motion-detected video last night, a swift arrived back on box #1 just after 8pm, and just 7 seconds later one arrived in box #4 (presumably the same one as last night). Both stayed overnight, and left in the morning.
2015-May-5 Yesterday morning I heard and saw my first swifts of 2015, high in the sky. In early evening, I saw one flying slow and low near the house, and 'acknowledging' the nestboxes in the way they do - some kind of dip of the wings - it it just to slow and take a look? It was probably one of my birds, and at 6:46pm one entered camera-nestbox #4 and stayed overnight, leaving again this morning.
2015-April-22 I've just finished checking the nestboxes, and arranging two video cameras for the 2015 season.
This is nest box #1 in which swifts raised young for the first time in 2012. In 2013 (with a camera in the box for the first time) they raised 3 chicks, and 2 in 2014. In 2013, the first swift arrived on the evening of 2013 May 6th, and in 2014 the first swift arrived on the evening of 2014 May 5th. Over the winter 2014-2015, the nest was reduced to a pile of debris by insects (this is quite common).
This is nest box (#4) in which swifts raised young for the first time in 2014 (with a camera in the box). In 2014, the first swift arrived on the evening of 2014 May 7th. The birds built their nest on the 'concave', and unlike the one in box #1, it has remained intact over winter 2014-2015.