Saturday, April 18, 2020

Swifts in 2019

So following the success of 2018 I was keen to develop my colony further. 

14/4/2019 - I added two new boxes of the same Zeist design from the nest box company based in Solihull , they also custom built a box for me to fit in a small space at the edge of the house for a small charge. 

3/5/2019 - over 200 Swifts were just down the road at Wintersett but still non at home. 

27/5/2019- by the 27th May there was hardly any swifts in Crofton, this could be due to a terrible cyclone in Mozambique this winter, followed by by bad weather of the Sahara. Many Swift blogs reporting low numbers returning and mass fatalities. To be honest by this date I was panic stricken. 

28/5/2019- 3 swifts were screaming around the house- I played the swift calls to attract them. 2 swifts attempted to enter boxes from 8pm-10pm. Non entered boxes. 

29/5/2019- Swifts Roosted in Box 3. 

9/6/2019- A Swift flew out of box 4 

10/6/2019- Sunny and Mild, up to 30 Swifts over the house with 6 Screaming round - 2x pairs in box 3 and 4. 

18/6/2019 - 1 Banger 

23/6/2019- 2 boxes placed on neighbouring houses. Even some banging on neighbours boxes. 8/9 screaming around the street. 

3/8/2919- Swifts active in box 2 & 3, screaming parties of up to 10 birds. 2 birds see. Going in A neighbours house where no box was present. Box 3 had layed eggs but were ejected in mid July , maybe they fell out of the nest when an intruder entered. 

19/8/2019- box 2 feeding young, all other birds have left. 

25/8/2019 - Baby Swift peering out of the box 2 , decent sized bird. 

2/9/2919- Swifts still, but seldom seen. I predict only one bird still feeding the young. 

8/9/19- Swifts last heard , I presume the fledged overnight or on the 9th September. 




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