Week 2

So nearing the end of the second week since my Swift arrived back and I can confirm I have three new pairs, I did initially think there was four however it seems one pair couldn’t quite decide on which box they preferred. So much so they spent two nights roosting in separate boxes until last night when they did roost together in box 24.

This pair was also witnessed earlier in the week flying around with a third bird around my house, the pair then entered box 23 only for the third bird to follow them into the box. Two’s company and three is definitely a crowd when it comes to swifts and after a brief fight inside the box the single bird tried to make a quick exit that was hampered by the bird inside obviously clinging onto the hapless bird.

I did have a little more excitement however two days ago when I was stood outside on a damp and miserable morning, I see two birds buzzing my front aspect. When you watch Swift around your colony for long enough you get a feel for what’s going on and I instinctively knew these were not an old pair. Then after five minutes or so one disappeared very confidently inside box 7 on my front aspect, it was followed closely by a second bird but it chose not to attempt to to enter.

After checking last year’s notes I had written on two occasions where I had witnessed a bird confidently going in this box, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I don’t however have a camera inside so I will have to rely on good d fashion observations, which will be nice and hopefully over time I may hear the jangling noise of chicks overhead.

Also this week I had the raiding Sparrow, last year we had a House Sparrow that obliterated the Swift nest in box 15 and took it all for its own nest and I think this is the same bird that’s definitely working clever. Out of sympathy for the Swift I even collected some feathers to give them a bit of help however the Sparrows soon made short work of removing them long before the Swift even had a chance to use them 😂

Update 11:51, today I have my first egg, I had my suspicions when my old pair in box 20a had spent all morning in the nest while all other birds had vacated their boxes. Then they finally moved off, happy days😁.