Spent some time today trolling the internet to find out how the swifts are doing this year. It looks like this is a particularly bad year and my observations are in keeping with others in Oxford, Cambridge and a couple of other places monitoring swifts. The ejection of eggs from the nest as happened in the first nest I was filming has been common this year. I expect the eggs are not viable either because its too cold or because the adults have to spend so much time on the wing feeding due to lack of insects that they do not have the time to keep the eggs warm enough. The first nest that has produced young for the last 2 years I am now sure has been abandoned. Another nest that I can only see from the outside of the house has had very little activity and not seen those swifts for several days. One nest in the attic seems to be active but access is so difficult that I am not sure what is happening. The swifts in the nest I am still filming are not behaving, as I would expect from previous years, as if they have eggs in the nest. At least one of them would be spending more time on the nest.I caught one entering the nest at 21.00 (video below). He or she spent about 15 minutes in the nest then crawled to the eves where I got a couple of flash photos from outside then joined its partner flying and at 22.00 has failed to return.

Video of swift arriving home

A couple of flash photo’s from outside.