Dreadful weather over the weekend and today torrential rain all day with thunder and lightening. It’s cold as well. For a lot of today all 4 swifts have been in. They look cold fluffing up their feathers and the eggs have been covered all day. They should hatch soon. I hope the weather improves a little so that there will be some food for them.

A short clip from each nest.

Very little to report. Still waiting for proper warm sunny swift weather. From the swift grapevine I hear that numbers are now increasing significantly. Probably the non breeders arriving. Still not seeing and hearing them fly round the house much. Let’s hope more arrive soon. There is almost always one swift on both nests all the time so have not been able to check the eggs. From previous years another 5 or 6 days before I expect them to hatch.

Yesterday we went to the Torbay Airshow. A beautiful hot sunny day. Saw red arrows fast jets and aerobatics. No swifts. Was hoping to see late evening swifts but none seen. Yesterday morning 5 were flying round the house with 2 on the nest so total of 7 swifts in our locality. Will have to wait til chicks have hatched to see if any more are nesting in our attic. Still just 2 eggs in chimney nest from this clip.

Have been away for several days looking after grandchildren over half term. On return little has changed here. Still one swift on each nest nearly all the time. This morning it was cold and overcast but I thought I saw 3 flying with 3 on the nest at the same time. As yet they are not going out for a communal dusk fly around. It’s warmer and sunnier today so hopefully may see some later.

A clip from each nest tonight.

Not a lot to add. Grandchildren came for the weekend so was out and about and in the garden. Didn’t see any swifts flying. It’s been fairly cold so one swift has been on the nest all the time so no updates on the number of eggs. Interestingly both nests have had the addition of a few feathers caught on the wing. This is normal for a swift nest. Their nests are very basic but as they are on the wing all the time they can only add material caught on the wing. A clip from both nests showing the feathers.

Been away for a couple of days visiting Chelsea Flower Show. Stayed in Earls Court area and saw 3 swifts flying. Last night after arriving home had 4 swifts screaming round the house whilst 3 of mine were in the nest area. So 7 swifts locally. That’s the maximum I saw last year and I hear more are arriving. Two of the swifts were trying to get into the eaves fairly near the bedroom nest which upset the current occupiers causing a lot of screaming on the nest There has been one swift on each nest all day taking turns incubating the eggs. I did catch sight of the bedroom nest during a change and am delighted to see 3 eggs. Not much will change over the next couple of weeks.

Clip showing the 3 eggs.

Saw 3 swifts screaming round the house this morning. I am pretty sure they are from the 4 on camera. It has at last got much warmer however most of the time one swift is staying on the nest most of the time. During a brief moment when both chimney nest swifts were out I got this clip. We now have at least 2 eggs on each nest. This is average but can get up to three.

Usual story. All 4 swifts in nest overnight. This morning after the chimney nest swifts left for the day a clear view of an egg in the nest.

The pair in the bedroom nest have just gone out even though it’s raining and revealed 2 eggs in their nest.

It’s been a very busy few days for us so sorry for lack of posts. The swifts have been behaving as I would expect. Staying on the nest together over night then leaving around 10am. Returning about 5 or 6 pm. The news is though that I think there is an egg in the bedroom nest. Not easy to see on the short clip below but the egg shaped object was not there before.

When I have been at home I have not seen flying swifts and no screaming. Looking forward to it and when it’s a little warmer will see if any more swifts are about and if we may have more nests.

Busy couple of days for us. Swifts spending most of the day out and about. They left about 10.30 am and returned after 5pm.

A couple of clips from both nests this morning.