Another lovely day. They were away when I eventually arose this morning. Came back briefly a couple of times during the day then returned together at about 20.00.they were very active walking around and what appeared like nesting. While they were on the cam in the nest there were 6 flying around the house. Two videos tonight. Firstly showing nesting.

The second one giving good views of both birds.

Not much news on our swift front. They have been seen on the nest more often. Both on the nest last night and both there now.(22.00). The weather has improved significantly. It is calm, warm,sunny and flies everywhere. Two videos tonight. The first just to show both swifts in the nest, the second showing “nesting behaviour”. Unless there are eggs already I still feel its a bit late for this pair to successfully rear young but what do I know?

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.

Its been a couple of days of unseasonable weather, not what is required by breeding swifts. Heavy rain over last night then a brief lull this morning followed by heavy rain since lunchtime today. Just after my last blog, saying how pleasing it was to see them both in the nest at night, they both left and I guess were out all night. This morning when the weather was okay they were both at home then spent the afternoon in the rain on the wing. One returned at 20.15 and the other joined them at 20.30. At the moment, 22.00 they seem settled down for the night. Caught a nice clip of them together wandering around earlier. The contrast between their total mastery of the air and their less coordinated ground movements is obvious. I believe that for many years they were thought to have no legs. They do have very short legs and can easily land on a wall.

Here is the clip from earlier.

A photo taken at 22.14 tonight showing them together on the nest.

They were both off at the crack of dawn again this morning. Yet again tonight at about 21.40 we had 8 swifts screaming round the house. Was out trying to photograph them and as usual failing (they are so fast) when both flew into the nest together. I am particularly pleased as the last couple of nights have only seen one return to the nest. Here is the evidence.

Its still cold for the time of year. The swifts are off first thing and flying over the house from about 20.30 then into nest about 21.45.

Managed to get a photo while they were flying earlier showing the distinctive shape.

Also this clip from the first one arriving home.

New position of cam seems to be working well. May think of moving it a bit nearer now they seem used to it. These two swifts are certainly more active that the other two. Came home about 21.30 to the screaming of eight swifts dive-bombing the house again. Although we have had some sunny days it is still cold for them especially at night. Managed  to catch the first one back arriving after a full day flying.

After yesterdays rather sad news I was unsure what to do. I decided to move the swift cam to another nest that I don’t think was here last year. The nest was a little difficult to access and I am unable to get a view inside the nest so I have no idea if there are any eggs. We will just have to wait and see. The nest is tucked under the eves of the roof probably in an old sparrows nest. The cam is not so close but will probably give better views of the swifts especially the youngsters if we get them. I was lucky tonight. There is a couple of seconds delay on the cam. I saw them both arrive above our conservatory and managed to film them both arriving together. They have slightly different personalities to the pair I got to know last year. They seem to stay together outside the nest and are regularly the last ones back. This evening, a lovely sunny end of the day had the good fortune of having eight screaming swifts dive-bombing  the house. Here is the clip of them arriving.

Can’t help but feel sad today. Two eggs now disappeared. The swifts were off early this morning, empty nest at 07.15. Viewed cam on and off all day to see if I could identify any intruders but only saw empty nest. One returned about 20.00 this evening but is still alone on the nest. A short clip from this evening.

On a happier note I found a previously undiscovered active nest. It should be possible to move the cam to this nest. I am planning to wait until Monday but if the current nest is abandoned I will try to move it.

A bad news day. One of the swifts was on the nest all morning left to enjoy the sunniest and warmest day of the year so far. I showed the one egg to a friend on the cam at 13.15. Rechecked the cam at 15.15 and there was no egg. As the swifts were not about I had a look in the nest with a mirror to check the egg had not moved and found an empty nest. This is the second egg that has disappeared I am sure the entrance is too small for a magpie and am pretty sure we don’t have rats in the attic so I am puzzled. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.They both returned to the nest at about 19.30 and have been a bit more active than usual.Here are a couple of clips from the web cam.

A longer clip showing active swifts